Storm the Coast II: Purging the Injustice
by Lord Narf
Summary: Ever since the events in Unlikely Hero, the boys' relationships with each other have been straining. Will they be able to settle their differences before they break down? And what happens when someone far less fortunate steps into the picture?
1. Author's Preface and Prologue

**Purging the Injustice - An Alvin and the Chipmunks Fanfic  
****Written by: Tal 'Narf' H.  
**Kudos to Felicity Wynter for some help with the groundwork and beta reading.

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**Alright, just like my last story, I digress. The Chipmunks, Chipettes, David Seville and Miss Miller are not my characters. They belong to Bagdasarian productions. However, all of the other characters that are written in this story I've created and developed for the most part myself, with the exception of the doctor from the last story. Felicity came up with the idea, however I expanded on the character a little bit.**

**For all of you corporate swines that may be stalking upon my story, be aware also that I wrote this story, as well as the prequel and any following installments, just for kicks and giggles just to waste my time productively and entertain people. I did not in any way shape or form do this for profit. Therefore, I am not doing anything illegal, being as this is a free fanfic. And with that, get your own damn story!**

**Also, please be warned that this (if it isn't clear enough) story is in fact a sequel. So for those who haven't read my first story (The Unlikely Hero), you probably won't be able to see the entire picture I've painted. So if you wish to get a better feel for the storyline, I highly recommend you read the first story. If you don't remember the story and would like to touch up, you might want to do that as well. I'm going to wait a couple of days before I start releasing anything further than the prologue for those who wish to do so.**

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**Author's Preface**

Hello once again! Yes I realize it's been a while, but I haven't forgotten about here, and I finally have that sequel that I've been trying to get done for a little over a year. I apologize for the delays, but it was for the best. I scrapped three story ideas in favor for this one, and this one flows much smoother than all of the previous ideas. So hopefully, the wait wasn't all for naught.

And I know I was going to write a few little fun things on the side. I've had a bunch of problems come up over the last year, so when things finally settled in, I decided that it was for the best to pour all my focus into one story. At least I have that seldom read Christmas fic! XD

Okay, enough rambling. Just like the predecessor, this story does have songs to it. In fact, there's more than the last one, but how I'll be carrying about with the songs is pretty much the same as last time. I'll provide links to the songs on my Author's profile (although they will be in the form of a play list this time so that you can bookmark it for later use), the songs are more of a music video like feel, and if you're a slow reader, you might want to read ahead first without the music so that it all gets pieced together properly. I have a more detailed description about how it works in the prologue of Unlikely Hero if you need clarification.

One thing I might want to mention before you start reading, is that the story is actually quite dark. It's much different than Unlikely Hero was, where although there were some instances of peril, it was more circumstantial than deliberate. This story is actually much heavier and darker, and so I ask you to take the 'T' rating with a grain of salt.

See, I've seen darker and more detailed in terms of violence in some stories with a 'T' rating to it, so that's where the bias comes from. Plus, in this day and age I think that most thirteen year olds can handle what I wrote by now. There's a few instances of violence and a fair amount of foul language. I will say though, this story is **borderline mature**. I'm pretty sure that it doesn't cross that line; it's not excessive. However I know it's flirting rather close. If you absolutely strongly feel that I should upgrade, _please_ let me know through reviews. That's the whole reason why I encourage reviews, because feedback can be crucial. I honestly don't think it will be a problem though.

Anyways, with all necessary disclaimers aside, I think you might enjoy the change in narration to say the least. I realized when I started writing the fourth story that I had the wrong one telling Unlikely Hero the whole time. This time, I have the one that should have been telling the story in the first place.

Thanks for your time and enjoy the rather short prologue for now! :)

-Narf

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**Prologue: Up the Down Stairways**

The gentle, or maybe not-so gentle irony about life: while one may be having the time of their life, getting somewhere with themselves and be full of progress and insight; someone else may have one of the worst lives imaginable.

Yep, that's life for you.

This is a story about three separate families. While two families lives are starting to spiral out of control, one family is living life to the fullest extent. Two parallel to each other, while one is completely unknown. And eventually, all three paths will come together with explosive and life altering results. Stories of heroism and tragedy, life and death, and unimaginable strength combine to make a story that could perhaps even make the most stone faced reporter show a little emotion.

...but who cares about reporters anyways? I digress though.

Me? Hell, that's easy. My life was great before the insanity started. I won a contest that my big brother randomly decided to enter me into, and now for some reason, I'm living in the comforts of a brand new home near said contest givers.

See, I won this supposed 'One weeklong visit to the world famous child musicians, The Chipmunks!' and wasn't sure how to take it. It sounded like a good way to make a couple of new friends, non-humans for that matter, and then I'd come home and go back to usual old boring-land, better known as reality.

The moment I got there though, things got real crazy. I had to stop Theodore (or Teddy as I like to call him at times) from getting killed by some prick who shouldn't have been driving in the first place. Next thing I know, I've turned into the next media sensation and I live across the street from Teddy and his brothers and I'm living the high life, complete with new friends and a more prosperous outlook for my family.

But looks can very well be deceiving you see. There's a delicate balance in everything. Something easily gained can just as easily be lost. In the beginning of June life was rather awesome, even if I do say so myself. I mean, sure, my brother was trying to 'drill the stupid out of me' as I'm going to blatantly misquote it, just because I broke a car window. Whoopdie-doo. But really, my life couldn't be any better.

I started off with just Tal and mom, and occasionally Tal's friends if I was entitled to come along. Now I had six new friends that are roughly my age, Tal landed a great new job in the music business, and I had all these cool new things to do and look forward to. None of the old relying on chat rooms for mediocre entertainment. Not anymore!

If this was earlier in the summer, the insanity I was referring to probably would have been just exclusively how the Seville brothers had been acting in late June. I mean, at first, they were just like what I've read about; Alvin was a fun loving but mischievous little brat, Simon was wiser than almost anyone I ever met, and Theodore was an irresistible and absolute sweetheart. But some things began to change with them, make a change that began to snowball into more and more conflicts.

But if I was saying that the boys acting out of character was all there was to the story, I would just be pretentious. I know occasionally one will get into scrapes into life, whatever, it can't be controlled. But there was somebody else I met over the summer, somebody who constantly challenged not only my perceptions on reality, but everyone surrounding me. And as soon as that happened...well I'll let you figure that one out for yourself.

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And there you have it. Granted it was rather short, I assure you that all of the chapters are longer than this. What do you think? You interested? Feel free to leave reviews! I didn't write this just for myself you know.

**I will see you guys in a few days when I feel that everyone has been given enough time to catch up on Unlikely Hero! (If necessary, of course.)**


	2. Chapter 1: Summer to Almost Look Forward

**Alright, I think it's about time to get the show on the road! As I stated in the Author's Preface... or at least I _think_ I said in the Author's Preface anyways- the songs start immediately in this chapter. I'm doing things differently this time around in terms of songs, and that is all of the songs are on one playlist. So now instead of having to click a dozen links every time I come to a chapter with a song, you have it in one convenient place. So when you first go to the playlist to listen to the song in this chapter, please remember to bookmark it/add it to your favorites. It will be much easier in the long run, so you don't have to hit back every time I say "Watch out, there's a song in this chapter." ;)**

**There are instructions on the playlist link itself, right at the top in a big gray box. _Please_ read them, it will make your life a little easier. The link to the playlist is on my FFN profile.**

**I won't delay you guys any longer. Enjoy the first chapter! :)**

**Cheers,**  
-Narf :)

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**Chapter 1  
**A Summer to Almost Look Forward To

"Fritzie, get up," a voice called to me, shaking me lightly. I growled.

"Unggghhhh," I mumbled. Can't people see I'm sleeping?

"Fine, I'll just go tell Dave to go on ahead and pick the boys up," the annoying voice said, leaving the room. I licked the roof of my mouth and snuggled myself right against the pillow again.

Then it hit me. I overslept!

"Whoa! Wait a second! Hold up!" I yelled out, frantically throwing off the light blanket that was on me and the pillow across my new room in the process and ran to catch up with Tal, my older brother, out in the hallway.

Tal spun around to look at me and stuck his tongue out at me; his medium long brown hair in every which direction in the late morning light. "Why should I?" he said playfully. I scoffed.

"Hmm," I said, putting one of my 'fingers' to my chin, "what kind of sarcastic answer can I cook up this time?"

"Act like a smartass and I'll just tell Dave to go on without you anyway," Tal said, sulking a little bit with a frustrated look on his face.

"Hey, you asked for it 'brudder,'" I said, playfully jabbing at him in the side. He winced, causing me look at my paws. Woops, forgot to retract my claws. My brother's eyes started twitching at me as I began to rub my shaggy calico fur uneasily.

"Eep! Sorry Tal, forgot to retract my claws," I said apologetically, looking at the offending appendages stupidly. Tal looked like he was still pouting at me though. "What? I apologized!"

He gave me a disgruntled sigh and headed towards the back den, where the computer and second living room was. I rolled my eyes.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked half sarcastically. I thought that he wouldn't act this way anymore, not since he got out of his fast food job three or so weeks ago but I see that didn't change.

"I'm just a little stressed out," He said, sliding into his chair and began calling up a website on the computer.

"'Stressed out?' Tal, come on. We don't live at home anymore, and you have a much better job. How could you possibly be stressed out?" I asked with a bitter and flat tone in my voice.

"And that must mean that my life is easy and completely carefree?" Tal snapped as if I was retarded or something. "Just remember, I'm raising you now without the help of mom, it's not as easy as you think."

"I'm not all stress free either, dude," I pointed out. "Just chill out."

Tal spun around in his chair. "Well if you're stressed out, you shouldn't have broken that car window."

"It's not that!" I said defensively, and then groaned in exasperation. "Look, I'll talk to you about that later, okay? I got to go catch Dave before he leaves," I said, running towards my room to go looking for something more suitable to wear than the wrinkled clothes I slept in.

As I ran for my room, Tal had a grin on his face. I looked back to see the grin and his cobalt colored eyes pierce right through me, causing me to tilt my head a little bit. Was he just testing me?

Whatever, I don't have time to think about it. I got to change my clothes!

I took my shirt and jeans off and went into my brand new closet with a few new shirts in it. I quickly grabbed a baby blue shirt and a nice pair of navy blue jeans that was in a neatly folded pile and put them on.

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**KEY SONG: ZZ TOP - CHEAP SUNGLASSES**

I wasn't quite satisfied with my attire though. It was missing a certain flair for the first day of summer.

_  
When you wake up in the morning and the light has hurt your head,  
__The first thing you do when you get up out of bed...  
I__s hit that streets a-running and try to meet the masses,_

But where was it though? I ran over to my dresser and promptly began throwing everything out of them trying to find something.

_  
And go get yourself some cheap sunglasses._

Then at the bottom of the drawer, I found a pair of sunglasses Tal bought me a few days after we moved in.

_  
Oh yeah!  
__Oh yeah!  
__Oh yeah!  
__Oh yeah!  
_

Since I didn't have human ears, they had springs in the 'arms' to keep them to the side of my head. I threw them on and bolted out the door across the street, and greeted Dave just in time to jump into the car.

_Spiny little thang and I followed her all night  
__In a funky pair of Levi's and her sweater is kind of tight  
__She had a west coast struttin' that was sweet as molasses  
__But what really knocked me out was the cheap sunglasses!_

At school, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore were standing out in the school parking lot, signature filled yearbooks in hand. Edgy to leave school for a few months, they were waiting patiently for Dave to arrive.

Just as Alvin sighed in boredom, Dave pulled up in front of them and I jumped out of the car before the car fully rolled to a stop.

"Fritzie!" the three of them chorused as I stood in front of them, the sun backlighting me as I stood over them.

_  
Oh yeah!  
__Oh yeah!  
__Oh yeah!  
__Oh yeah!  
_

"Ready for a kick-tail summer?" I asked loudly.

"Hell yeah!" Alvin blurted out obnoxiously.

"Alvin!" Dave yelled out.

_**[Solo]**_

Alvin looked sheepishly over at Dave. "Sorry."

The boys piled into the car, Theodore being careful as he was still on crutches and in a cast from his broken leg, and we began to drive home.

"It feels so good to be out of that place," Alvin said, relaxing his head in the back of his arms, treating school as if it was already a thing of the past.

"I concur," Simon said, rubbing his glasses with the hem of his turtleneck, "I could use a little time to relax."

"Yeah! I can't wait until I can finally run around again with you guys," Theodore added, sounding a little forlorn through his excitement. I picked up on it, but I've gotten used to it. I don't think Theodore would really get over it until he can start cooking again.

"Heh, I'm glad I don't ever have to go to that place. I hear so many bad things about it; I don't ever want to go there. And I don't think Tal will make me. I'm technically an adult by the US Government" I added smugly.

"That's not fair!" Alvin said wide-eyed. "You're _younger_ than us!"

_  
Now go out and get yourself with some thick black frames  
__With the glass so dark that they won't even know your name  
__Now the choice is up to you because they come in two classes:  
__Rock on shades or cheap sunglasses_

"Are you actually serious about that statement, Fritzie?" Dave asked. I flinched wildly in my seat. In my imagination, I could see that eyebrow of his reaching his hairline.

"Yeah. My species is new, they don't know how to approach it, so I'm an adult according to Tal."

"According to Tal or not, you're particularly lucky that nobody gave you a background check because you could have been arrested for that stint a month ago."

_Oh yeah!  
Oh yeah!  
Oh yeah!  
Oh yeah!_

I just rest the back of my head on my arms and let the cool breeze of the open air overtake me, trying real hard to not actually show how scared I was of that statement. I could have been arrested? Whoa. I never thought of it that way. Guess I have to be careful now.

"Man, why do the Chipettes get to go on a vacation for a few weeks?" Alvin complained. "Brittany gets everything she wants."

"They're going on vacation?" I asked a little puzzled.

"Yep, they're going to San Francisco for two weeks. Miss Miller wanted to visit some relatives and the girls wanted to come along," Simon said drearily. "They're leaving later tonight." I raised an eyebrow.

"Oh," I said, not sure what to say next. At least with the Chipettes around, I had someone to help me keep the brothers from souring too much, especially Eleanor. I began to feel disappointed as we turned onto our block.

When we got back home, Alvin and I didn't even wait for the car to stop the both of us jumped out of the car and ran into the house, while Simon stayed behind to help Theodore out of the car.

When Alvin and I got upstairs, he began looking around the room for something to play with, that lingering little thought about what Dave said on the way home wouldn't just go away. I had to set that thought aside though, because I had to prepare for playing referee for the boys. It might look like things are normal around here, but looks can be deceiving, and it was only a matter of time before something went sour today, like has happened almost every day the last two weeks.

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"What!?" Alvin yelled out, furiously mashing buttons on his Xbox controller. "How in the…what the? Who?!"

I couldn't help but start laughing, it was just too funny. Alvin shot a dirty look at me.

"I'm just too good," I said smugly.

"Nuh-uh! Even Brittany is better than you," Alvin said, immaturely shuddering when he said 'Brittany.'

"Would you two pipe down?!" Simon yelled edgily from the top of the stairs. "I'm trying to do some vital research!"

I sighed and put down the controller. "Sorry Simon," I said, but Alvin wasn't so quick to let it go.

"Trying to do vital research? When are you not trying to do your quote unquote 'vital' research?" Alvin said in defense, jumping up from the couch with the controller still in his hands.

"Oh wonderful, here we go again," I muttered to myself. I looked up to get eye contact with Simon though. "Alvin has a point there Simon. Why don't you just chill, or get some headphones?"

"Or hell, for once in your dreary monotonogulous life and play a video game!" Alvin called out.

Simon sighed and looked at the ground as if he wasn't impressed. "Alvin, it's monotonous. And no thanks; I have more important things to do than just look at colorful eye candy." And just as I'd opened my mouth to reply, Simon walked back into the door. Instead, I crossed my arms.

"Humph, maybe if he took a break from whatever he's so closely safeguarding and unwind a little bit he wouldn't be so stressed out," I said, not impressed with how early the fights were starting up today. I was expecting this, but that doesn't mean I accept it either, and today they didn't wait for the tensions to take over.

I suppose at least this time Theodore isn't here to make matters worse. After Dave dropped all of us off back at home after a half day's school for them, we had lunch before he took Theodore in for his four week evaluation for his broken leg. Doc Harris wants to know how Theodore's leg is coming along to make a judgment on when to remove the cast.

Until then, I can only hope that the boys don't get worse with their fights. See, ever since I came into the picture the boys progressively been getting more and more violent towards each other. And even though Dave insists it's not, I can't help it but feel I'm partly to blame for it. I try, but I have no idea what's going on in the boys' minds.

Allow me to elaborate.

I'll start with Alvin. To the untrained eye, Alvin's pretty much the same. He's still his cocky, vain and arrogant self, full of impulsive comebacks and of course misguided schemes. But from my eyes, I hang out with the three boys religiously; I often get to see a different side of Alvin.

Remarkably, Alvin's the only one of the three that's actually been making any sense. Alvin's starting to give more intelligent comebacks to Simon's provocations as time goes on, and it often surprises me. Either Alvin's maturing a little, Simon's changing for a worse status, or most likely, a little bit of both. Plus, not to mention that Alvin's been a little more apt to say how he really feels about things, but it's only ever so subtle.

Simon actually has changed the most, on the contrary to his brothers. When I first met Simon, he actually had quite an attractive charisma about him. It was really quite charming. He was very sympathetic towards my plight, helped Theodore keep his cool, and even helped cook up that crazy scheme back during that first night I was here.

But ever since that first week though...Simon's become more aloof and secretive. Sure, in public he's quite normal (though there's a different look in his eye, like he actually has no interest being out at all). Lately, he's just sitting in front of the computer day in and day out, only popping out to grab a light snack or a drink and check on Theodore as if it were a doctor-patient relationship. And if someone other than Dave or occasionally Tal calls him out of his drone like trance, he snaps at all of us like Alvin would the first time I stole his hat from him. Even Theodore would draw a negative, though less severe reaction out of him.

Which brings me to Theodore. He's also much different than when I first came around. Sure, he's still quite adorable, but to my own surprise, I actually have been relating to Alvin better, despite our competitive natures.

See, lately, Theodore has been kind of aloof as well. I can understand feeling a bit forlorn since he can't actively play with Alvin and I, but there's something more to it. Theodore is just too quiet. He won't talk to anybody, even me, about how he's feeling. It makes me a bit worried, because when I first came along, he didn't seem like the type to hold secrets very well.

There is something else though. Theodore acts totally different around Simon than he does around the rest of us. I can feel a huge amount of pent up tension in Theodore whenever Simon is relatively close to him, and it scares me just a little bit. I don't even think Simon's aware of it at all; because Theodore doesn't make it completely obvious, but he doesn't exactly hide the fact either. I think Simon's too wound up with whatever he's researching to even bother to connect to the world surrounding him and pay attention to his brother's needs.

The boys keep themselves relatively separate from each other was well. Alvin will hang out with Theodore sometimes, but the only time Simon really interacts with any of his brothers are during meals and as I'm going to label it, 'check-ups.'

So one can see my concern. I just know that eventually, something's going to crack between the boys. There's about two and a half weeks left before Theodore will be fully functional again and return to a more normal mind frame, but the damage will be done. Sometimes, it gets so bad that I don't even want to hang out with the boys anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love all three of them to death. They're just the friends I needed all these years. But sometimes, I wonder to myself if I just force myself to go there just to moderate. There was an incident like that only a few days ago that I'd rather not go in-depth with, but I've never seen anyone argue so much about something as simple as having the lights on or off.

"Yeah right," Alvin said, rolling his eyes before heading towards the front door, "this isn't the first time he's gone into one of these binges. Let's go outside."

I nodded. Going outside sounded like a great idea.

"So that Simon can research in peace and quiet!" Alvin yelled back into the house mockingly. Almost on cue, a shoe hit Alvin in the back of the head with an audible clunk. I looked up the stairs to see an almost enraged Simon standing at the top of the steps, breathing heavily to keep himself from snapping.

Alvin grabbed the shoe and looked up at Simon, before putting the shoe down abruptly. Then he flattened his face a little bit and walked outside. I followed behind and closed the door quietly.

"Did he actually throw a shoe at you?" I said in disbelief. Alvin took his cap off and began rubbing the back of his head.

"Frickin' jerk," Alvin said through clenched teeth. Sounded like it hurt, I stood there for a second and waited for Alvin to stop rubbing his head so furiously.

"I can't believe he threw a shoe at-wait a second...I'm in more disbelief that you didn't throw it back at him?" I said in an obviously disbelieving tone. I had to start rubbing my temples. "Are you two going off the deep end?"

"I should snitch on him right now for that!" Alvin complained, stamping his feet into the ground. "That really hurt!"

Wait...Alvin choosing snitching over throwing the shoe back? This is definitely not normal.

"Alvin," I cut in, rubbing Alvin's shoulders- something I don't often do, "let it go. If you tell Dave about it-" I began saying before cutting myself off. Something was seriously mixed up with that statement. Alvin stopped rubbing his head and turned to face me abruptly, his eyes watering both from pain and anger.

"If I do, what? Is that a threat?" Alvin growled warningly. I took a step back and waved my hands in front of my face.

"No no nononono. Alvin, that's not why I cut myself off, chill!" I said apologetically. Alvin loosened up a little bit and sulked. "There's an awkward ring to what I was going to say."

"What do you mean?"

"Well I was going to say, Simon will probably resent you for it," I finished, but then made eye contact with Alvin. "Don't you get it Alvin? You two are changing into each other!"

Alvin looked at me in disbelief. "What?!"

"Think about it Alvin! Simon getting overly aggressive, and quite selfish? You making witty comebacks and considering snitching over throwing the shoe back at him? Don't you get it?!" I exclaimed. "You two are switching roles!"

Alvin looked at his hands almost in horror. "Me? A n-n-nerd?" If the situation were even a little different, it would have been funny.

I slapped my forehead, making a satisfying 'd'oh' noise. "No!" I yelled out, then groaned in frustration and sat down on the front steps. "You're maturing a little bit, while Simon's regressing. He's throwing tantrums! Simon doesn't throw tantrums!"

"I guess you got me there," Alvin commented.

"And not just that, I mean, you didn't throw a shoe back at Simon? I was expecting you to throw it at something whether it was at Simon or the refrigerator."

Alvin blinked. "Whoa, I didn't did I?"

I got back up again. "I don't like the direction these fights are starting to go. Though telling Dave might be a good thing I don't think it's going to help," I said, looking back at Alvin's house. "There's got to be a way to fix these problems."

"Well, we could wait until Theodore's better," Alvin suggested, shrugging his shoulders.

"That's not going to work either," I said, putting a paw to my chin. Sure, it would effectively bring Theodore back to being capable of moderating Alvin and Simon's quirks. But...it's just not good enough. "There has to be a way to solve this before one of you three explodes. I don't think you guys will be able to take it much longer."

Alvin began to think as well. I could smell a scheme coming.

"Maybe we could somehow bring Simon into line..." Alvin said with a slight mischievous tinge.

"No, Alvin, don't. Whatever you're thinking, don't do it," I said with a serious, direct quality that strangely reminded me of Dave.

"And why not?" Alvin said, rubbing his hands together. I again slapped my head at his stupidity.

"All you'll do is make Simon pissed. You want this fighting to stop, right?" I directed. Alvin nodded, deciding to at least try to go along with what I had to say.

"Well then, if you want the fighting to end, you're just going to need to let him walk all over you for a couple of days," I said as a matter of fact.

"**What?!?**" Alvin screamed out at me, causing me to promptly cover my ears. My hearing is four times as good as a human's, he doesn't need to just scream at me.

"I know you don't like the i-"

"Don't like it?! You're insane! Me, letting **him** walk all over me?! Fritzie, that's like me telling you to stop acting like a dog!" Alvin complained. I had to wince at the dog analogy.

"What do you think I'm going through right now Alvin. Tal's trying to get me **to** stop acting like a dog, do you think **I** like it?" I let out a frustrated sigh. "Look, if you can push your ego aside for just a few days, Simon might come to his senses and realize that he's acting completely out of character! Don't you get it?"

Alvin growled and folded his arms. "I can't just stand here and let him boss me around, and that's that."

I sighed and sulked. So much for that idea. Understand me now? I'm not having the easiest time in the world keeping them in check. "Fine, if that's how you're going to deal with it, then you're just going to be miserable for the next few weeks," I concluded. Alvin growled in frustration.

"Besides Alvin, it's not Simon I'm the most worried about breaking first."

"Oh? And who might that be?" Alvin said defensively, just as Dave was readying himself to pull into the driveway.

"Theodore," I said, walking back into the house. Better to be distracted by a game than to be arguing with Alvin. At least with Dave back, everyone gets yelled at if we have a gaming adrenaline outburst.

Alvin looked at the car kind of funny, as though to think about it for a second. Then he followed me inside.

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**So, what'cha think? Find the first chapter cool? Intrigued by the brother's chemical imballance? I'd definitely love to know how you felt about the first chapter, so leave me a review and tell me what you think. I see that quite a few people have read the prologue over the last few days and only two people have to say something for it, which saddens me a little bit, although I will let it slide. It's only the Prologue after all.**

**However, this time the story is going to be released more based on reviews. Come on, I know there's quite a few of you that come here now. I see plenty of stories with tons and tons of reviews, so there's no reason for anybody to not be able to leave a comment on how they feel or if there's anything I could improve on a little bit. Reviews are the lifeline of the author, your feedback really does matter to me.**

**Will be uploading Chapter 2 sometime soon!**


	3. Chapter 2: Beast of Burden

**My apologies, I was supposed to have this uploaded yesterday but I had a real bad day at work... meh, bad week is a better description. Not satisfied with just two reviews so I'm hoping to have that notch up.**

**One thing before I move on into the chapter, a word of warning. This story can potentially get OC heavy at times. I realize I forgot to mention that in the Author's Preface but oh well, now you guys know. As Fritzie said herself, this is two stories that eventually mesh into one, so there may be entire chapters just like this one where the boys aren't even mentioned in it at all. Trust me, these OC side blurbs are _crucial_ to the story. If I just dropped the scenes, the story would be lackluster and not make as much sense.**

**The scene almost completely in italics is a flashback, so that nobody gets confused. Also, there's a strong language warning with this chapter.**

**Anyways, enjoy.**

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**Chapter 2  
**Beast of Burden

About fifteen miles west of Hollywood by as the crow flies are two charming little Californian woodland communities of Topanga and Fernwood. Twisty, windy roads and miles and miles of Southern Californian forest are brought together to bring a nice refreshing feel to what could be otherwise just another part of Los Angeles; an urban sprawl with a lack of a certain charisma to it.

However, in the community of Fernwood, not everything is well with it's population. As most people sleepily continue their daily lives in a woodland home away from the big city, one boy had it much different.

The third family in our story lives on the outskirts of the small community of Fernwood. A hunter named Derrick Beeler lived here.

Derrick was always a bit of a hermit. He loved the wide open spaces and the woods, making a pride and a lifelong obsession out of it; to live as a Californian champion hunter.

However, not everything turned out in his favor. See, Derrick also raised a child; a child that would one day assist him as a tracker in order to hunt countless trophy big game animals. The child grew up to become an expert tracker and even learned his own sense of communication with the forest. However, once the child found out Derrick's true intentions, he didn't like the idea at all and changed from an expert animal tracker to an expert animal repellant. Using his ways of communicating with the forest, he successfully warned the animals of his father's presence.

Eventually, Derrick began to hunt again alone realizing his son was a sort of a bad luck charm, though never exactly knowing why or how. Still, the hunter was never able to hunt successfully again, and it began to take its toll.

And the funny thing of it all is that the child somehow radiates an eerie feeling of déjà vu.

* * *

A rustic looking cottage stood gracefully on a clear early summer day, where coincidentally it was also the last day of school. There was a boy sitting on the wooden front porch, head in his arms and just simply waiting.

But this was no ordinary boy. His fringe barely waved in the gentle afternoon breeze, and his clothes looked faded and worn to his butterball physique. Thin square framed spectacles rested sloppily on his nose.

He looked up and rest his head on his arms, his eyes a bit glassy and grayed unhealthily. One would think that Dave was the only one in the area that had a chipmunk for a child. However, such was not the case.

The boy's name was Cody, Cody Beeler. Naturally, Cody was a very shy and polite kid, and is rather easily amused. However, the look in his eyes told another story: _neglect_.

He sighed, looking out over the front yard. It was relatively overgrown (though not too high) and not very well taken care for. The only places of bare dirt on his property were the makeshift walkway that laid trodden in front of him curving to the right and two gigantic circles where two hounds lived.

The exterior of the pale wooden house looked like it could use some tending to; however it wasn't in terrible shape. There were no terrible cracks in the paneling, however dead vines cluttered up the side of the house in a shoddy manner that meant that the house wasn't cleaned on the outside in at least a season of growth.

The porch Cody sat on was nothing elaborate: just a wooden panel a few feet by a few feet just a foot above the ground. Wasn't exactly comfortable but it had to do.

Cody looked towards the right across the empty driveway to the street then threw his head in his lap again and groaned.

"He told me not to go anywhere, and then doesn't come home..." Cody whimpered to himself. "I'm afraid to leave, yet I'm afraid to just sit here too."

He got up nervously and looked out towards the street. He wanted to just run to his neighbors house to at least get something to drink while he was waiting.

"I don't understand why he always locks me out of the house, as if I don't live here anymore..." Cody muttered to himself. "It's like I just don't exist anymore..."

An unsettling rumble came from his stomach. He clutched it and groaned.

"Aw man, now I'm hungry too. I wish school didn't end!" Cody complained to himself, and then abruptly looked up into the yard again. Nobody was there, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

He pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and looked at it. It was his report card that he got today. He sighed again as he looked at it.

On it was marked a B, two C+, a C, and a C-. He was thankful he passed, but these were his lowest grades since he started going to school. Normally he was at least a solid B student. So he knew there was going to be some problems with-

**Slam!**

Cody almost literally jumped out of his skin when he heard the noise. He looked up to see a familiar pick-up truck in the driveway. His father's.

Derrick was a relatively heavy guy. He wasn't very tall, only five foot two inches, but he weighed enough to hibernate for a month or two. A cigarette was lit in his mouth as he brought a moderately sized paper bag in each arm. His short brown hair was graying and scraggly and his face looked like he hadn't shaved in three weeks. His gray eyes looked almost lifeless and his face appeared to have bags and wrinkles everywhere.

"What the fuck are you jumpin' around for, snowflake?" Derrick grunted as he made his way up the worn in pathway.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you pull in," Cody said feebly.

Derrick growled in dismay. "How can you not hear me, anyone can hear m'truck a mile away!"

Cody looked down. He had nothing to say, and it was probably better to keep it that way.

"Argh, never mind. I'm not gettin' worked up over you," Derrick concluded, throwing Cody one of the bags of stuff almost knocking him off the porch as he rummaged through his pockets for his keys. Cody ventured a look inside the bag.

Two twelve packs of Bud Light. Cody let out a sigh that was a little louder than he wanted to.

"What are you complainin' about, cream puff?" Derrick growled as he was half turning the key in the door, fetching a glare at Cody that made him wince a little bit.

"N-nothing!" Cody stammered.

"Good. Thought so," Derrick said as he finished unlocking the door and turning the light on in the house. Cody reluctantly stepped inside to follow.

Inside the house was really where much of the havoc was. The majority of the furniture was either damaged or destroyed, and beer cans littered about the living room and kitchen. A patch in the living room even had some of the linoleum flooring missing revealing the plywood underneath.

There were two couches, on opposite sides of the room, and an arm chair at the far wall in between the two. One of the couches appeared to be undamaged; however a nice indent in the couch was visible, where Derrick spent most of the time at when he was home.

There was a coffee table in between the two couches, full of old beer cans, fast food bags, and old paper plates that may have been there for even as long as two weeks.

The place even had an odor to it that was almost pungent and raunchy. It smelled like a sweaty fast food joint to sum it up in short, however you could even trace the scent of beer from all the various cans littered about.

Cody was pretty clever at hiding it, but he was quite repulsed walking into the living room on a day to day basis. He shook his head in his mind and followed his father into the kitchen to set the booze down on the table.

After putting whatever groceries in his hand down, he turned around and held a hand out towards Cody, motioning that Cody owed him something.

Cody looked at the outstretched hand, then Derrick's stern face and blinked. Then it clicked in his mind, and he reached into his pocket to give his father his report card.

Derrick took the paper roughly from Cody's hands and opened the paper up. Unsure what he was reading, he then spun the paper around, realizing the paper was upside down. He saw Cody's grades then crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it at Cody's feet.

"What the hell do you call that?" Derrick said angrily.

"I'm sorry dad, you don't help me-"

_"I don't give a shit Cody!_" he yelled out, cutting Cody off before backhanding him. "Four Cs? What the hell are you thinkin'?"

Cody bit his lip. Truth to be told, he was dreading home too much. He was very lucky that his teachers were lenient on him and cut him a break about his home situation but the best they could do was keep his grades above a D.

"I-I'm sorry-"

"Not good enough Cody, not this time! You're a goddamn failure, you know that?"

Cody stared at Derrick and blinked, trying to hold back from crying because crying would make the situation worse.

"Go to your room, I've had enough of you today," Derrick commanded, pointing Cody towards his room with one hand and grabbing a beer with the other.

Without argument Cody went to his room as requested, leaving the shoddy looking kitchen down the hallway past the almost destroyed bathroom into his room, where not unlike the house; was also quite torn apart. The floor tiling was ripped up in several places, the only window on the wall opposite the door was boarded up crudely with cardboard and the only furniture was a torn apart bed, a lamp on a nightstand and an old dresser. Despite its shortcomings though, for the condition it was in it was rather well up kept compared to the rest of the house. He closed the door behind him and sat on the floor, leaning up against an area of open wall between his bed and his dresser.

'I don't get him anymore,' Cody thought to himself, resting one arm on his knees and the other rubbing his face where his father hit him. 'He used to be so nice to me, why did he change?'

Cody reached to his bed, which was right next to where he was sitting, and reached in between the mattress to grab a photograph. One taken two years ago.

Inside the picture was his father, dressed in a nice fancy tuxedo, looking more like his age and a clever grin on his face. Next to him though, was an attractive woman in her thirties. Her wavy light brown hair and slender glasses gave off an absolutely beautiful radiance. With one arm on him from each parent stood Cody, in a more normal T-Shirt and nice pair of jeans on, happy as he could be.

Cody sighed to himself quietly and put the picture back in between his mattress and his box-spring and curled up into a ball on the floor, leaning up against the wall and just began letting his imagination take a hold of his thinking.

* * *

"_I hate you!" a woman yelled out._

_"You what?" Derrick yelled back, curling his hands into a fist as he glared back at the woman in front of her._

_"You don't get it Derrick, do you? If Cody doesn't want to hunt with you, then leave him alone! Why do you get yourself worked up over this? Why do you resent him for your... your stupidity?!" the woman yelled back. It was the same woman in the photograph._

_Cody stood in the kitchen doorway, peering around to get a look at what was going on._

_"Stupidity? My stupidity? Laura, this is bullshit! I didn't raise my boy to become a great hunter to find out that he doesn't want anything to do with it," Derrick growled menacingly at Laura. Laura folded her arms together and looked angrily to the side._

_"But that's just it with you Derrick, it's always how it has to be your way. Can't you just leave it be? Can't you just move on with life, accept him for who he is, and return to the man I fell in love with five years ago?"_

_"I didn't come _this_ far to find out that he's not into it! I'm going to make him hunt whether he likes it or not!" Derrick yelled at Laura. Laura growled and stomped one foot on the ground._

_"I don't get you anymore..." Laura said in disappointment, before growling angrily. "Well you know what? Neither of us needs to deal with this anymore. Cody!" Laura called out. Cody came out from behind the doorway with a bewildered look on his face. "Come on, let's go."_

_"Oh no you don't!" Derrick said, picking Cody up and holding on to him roughly in his arms. Cody began kicking._

_"Let me go! That hurts dad!" Cody complained, trying to wriggle himself free._

_"You're not going anywhere and that's that," Derrick instructed as Cody kept trying to wriggle free._

_"You selfish little... grah!" Laura growled before running out the door._

_"She has no idea what she's talking about," Derrick grumbled as Cody began kicking wildly. When he heard a car start up not to far from the house, he managed to land a kick in the groin, subsequently causing Derrick to let Cody free from his father's grip. He ran out the front door in a hurry._

__

He stumbled down the front porch and took three steps out into the freshly mowed lawn before running down the stepping stone path to try and run after the car that was screeching out of his driveway.

"Wait! Please?!" Cody cried out, trying to chase after the car that was almost flying down the street, but gave up when he realized the car was out of sight in a few seconds.

For a few moments he stood in the middle of the street with a saddened and horrified look on his face. Before he sighed and sulked back towards the house.

After a few minutes, Cody stepped back inside. There was only one beer can in sight, currently in his father's hand.

His father looked up at Cody with an annoyed look on his face. "Go to your room Cody, I want to be left alone for a little while," he said in a more gentle tone.

Cody looked down at the floor and nodded, before walking downtrodden toward his room. The house itself was in much newer condition, and a shiny bass guitar was sitting proudly in the dining room part of the kitchen. He walked over and gently touched the guitar before heading to his room.

* * *

"Wake up you fool!" Derrick said, smacking Cody on the side of the face light enough not to cause any serious damage, but hard enough to sting a bit. Cody jerked up and looked blankly at his father.

"Here," Derrick said, handing Cody the plate roughly before heading towards the door again. "One complaint and you won't have the stomach to swallow anything for a week."

Cody looked at the retreating figure of his father before looking at the plate. On there was a rather crudely (but cooked) cut piece of steak. It made him squeamish and gulped when he looked at it.

'That's the third time this week,' Cody thought to himself as he looked at the plate confused as what to do with it. 'He knows I really can't eat meat...'

Cody shuddered as he looked at the plate. Not even a trace of vegetables in food for the last two weeks aside from school lunch? It's like he forgot that he couldn't digest it.

Or maybe, he actually knew that and was actually slowly torturing him with it.

Cody's face fell. Even if he couldn't digest it, food is food after all. It would be better to take what he got than not eat at all. Although, it actually made him wish he had some of the grass outside while was still out there. At least he would have had a better time digesting that.

Three bites were all that he could stomach though, because he began to feel nauseous. Ah, the old familiar feeling of nausea.

Ever since his father stopped caring about a proper diet, Cody began to gain weight at an alarming rate. He didn't like it, because it made things four times harder to do. And being nauseous all the time from the food he ate just compounded to the problem.

He felt dizzy as he got up slowly to shuffle into the kitchen and throw the leftovers away.

"What a fuckin' waste," Derrick commented as he stood in the kitchen doorway, his portion of steak in one hand and his fourth beer in the other. "You threw away some perfectly good steak right there."

'So why don't you take it out of the garbage then?' Cody thought to himself as he placed his plate in the sink and headed back for his room.

"Don't fuckin' ignore me cupcake, why did you throw it away?" Derrick said, raising his voice.

"You know I can't eat it," Cody said apathetically as he began walking back for his room.

Cody managed to take three steps before he was shoved hard onto the floor, landing hard on his right hand as he skidded across the crinkly linoleum.

"I didn't say backtalk me punk!" Derrick shouted.

"Then why do you ask me questions?" Cody whimpered, clutching his arm and trying to soothe it.

"Why you little-"

"No!" Cody shouted, spinning around on his back while still holding his right hand. "Stop it dad, this is insane! You find every sort of excuse to yell at me and make me feel like I'm nobody and then ask me questions just to yell at me again for answering them. What's wrong with you?!"

Derrick growled and clenched his fists.

"You're not my dad! You're just a jerk that took over his body! Dad was never like this to me!" Cody cried out. "Leave me alone!"

Cody braced himself for a thrashing, but to his surprise it didn't come. Derrick instead was in a horrendous coughing fit. Cody stared wide eyed at his dad and watched as he, to his surprise, left for the living room. Cody stood up and cradled his right hand and watched for a moment before running into his room before his dad had a second thought about it.

He sat down in the same spot he was at when he was eating and rubbed his arm. He had gotten used to pain over the last six months of constant abuse so this was nothing new. He just had to be very careful with his arm, to make sure it didn't get hurt any further.

He folded his arms on his knees and rested his chin on his arms again. It felt nice to stand up for himself for a change, but he knew it was just a fluke that it worked. This didn't mean that anything changed.

Cody looked up at the ceiling. 'I wish somebody could hear me, somebody to be there that can understand me. Is that so hard to ask?' he thought to himself. He then looked at the floor. 'Who am I kidding? Who would want to talk to me?'

* * *

**Quite a different change of pace compared to Unlikely Hero, isn't it? What do you guys think? I'd love to know your opinions and feedback, so once again I'm review hounding. Make me happy after a miserable week at work! The more reviews, the sooner I'll add the next chapter. :P**

**Until next time.**


	4. Chapter 3: All to One's Shortcomings

**Meh, I'm really disappointed. Not a single review last chapter. I didn't want to upload this chapter just yet, but I'm going to do it anyways, just because I can't let the story sit and stew either. But really, am I asking too much for just a few words on what you thought or what you're anticipating, or even what I'm doing wrong? I poured a huge amount of effort into this story, and it's taken me over a year to write this story right and the way I intended it. And with no reviews, it makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong or it's not entertaining enough, and it really discourages me from wanting to write more or even upload more of the story. It makes me feel like I wasted my time, and it's not only frustrating, but it also depresses me, because that's time that I could have spent doing other more productive things that I turned down in favor of entertaining _you._**

**So please do me a favor. Just give me an opinion. That's all.**

**(Sighs.) Here's the third chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 3  
**All To One's Shortcomings

Much later in the afternoon, Simon finally came out of their shared bedroom after spending much of the rest of the day uninterrupted in front of the computer and headed down the stairs. It was time to grab a light snack and check on Theodore to see how he was doing. It had become pretty much a daily ritual.

Making his way down the stairs, he noticed that Theodore was sitting at the base with his head in his arms. A bit concerned, he figured it would be better to check first, and_ then_ grab something to eat.

"Theodore. You alright?" Simon asked. Theodore glanced up and made eye contact with Simon, before resuming his former posture.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Theodore stated, trying not to sound too depressed, or angry for that matter. He was starting to build some resentment for Simon because of lack of attention.

"I lost again?!" Alvin yelled in exasperation. I laughed and performed a small victory dance to myself.

"Haha! That makes two wins today!" I exclaimed to myself victoriously.

"Best three out of five?" Alvin asked, challenging me and leaning towards my face. I leaned right back into his.

"You're on!" I said with a huge grin, but I leaned backwards a little bit. "But first, let's get something to drink," I said plaintively.

Alvin dropped his game face and nodded, and headed to the kitchen with me. Both of us greeted Theodore and Simon with a nod as we passed.

Simon sat down on the stairs. "Are you sure, it does look like something's bothering you."

"No, really, I'm fine Simon," Theodore said dryly. He didn't have anything to say to Simon. After all, Simon didn't have much to say to him these days.

"I bet Alvin did something to hassle you again, didn't he?" Simon admonished. Theodore flinched, because he knew exactly was about to happen.

"Wait, what?" Alvin called from the kitchen, heading to the staircase with a glass of orange juice in his hands.

"Did you do something to Theodore again? He's aggravated," Simon said, narrowing his eyes. I walked next to Alvin and blinked.

"Hey, get your facts straight before you come down here and start blaming me for things I didn't do, okay mister computer nerd?" Alvin growled, narrowing his eyes right back.

"Simon..." Theodore grumbled quietly, trying not to get Simon or himself to lose their tempers. Didn't help too much though, because Simon stood up and came down the rest of the stairs to the ground floor.

"Computer nerd?" Simon growled warningly. I sighed in exasperation.

"Not this again..." I muttered to myself.

"Yeah, computer nerd. That's all you ever do anymore, is just sit in front of that thing. You're cut off from the rest of us, for what, 'vital research?' You're so out of it that you're blaming me for all of Theodore's problems!" Alvin said in accusation, inching closer to Simon's face.

"But you usually _are_ the one causing Theodore problems!" Simon argued right back. I couldn't resist the urge to face palm.

"Alvin doesn't bother him and hasn't _been_ bothering him for the last two weeks! Would you stop it already? He didn't do anything to annoy him!" I argued. Boys, they can be so stubborn sometimes.

"What, now you're taking his side too?" Simon argued back to me. Gasp! What nerve! How rude!

"What do you **mean** I'm taking his side? Alvin. Didn't. Do. Anything. To him," I began laughing in aggravation. Better that than to do something retarded and end up having Tal doubly overload me with his little routine.

"Fellas, stop it," Dave called from the kitchen; all were completely unaware that Dave was even there watching this whole thing escalate. "What's wrong with you guys, if Alvin didn't aggravate anyone, then why are you arguing about it?"

"Sorry Dave," Simon said in a convincing apologetic tone, but glared at Alvin with a look that read 'This isn't over yet.'

Alvin rolled his eyes and left to go back to the Xbox. He took a few steps towards the TV, then turned around when he noticed I wasn't following. "Yo, are you coming?"

I stared at Theodore, who looked like he was either going to blow up in anger or cry and didn't know which one of the two he wanted to do. This was exactly what I didn't want to happen, more fights. But I can't blame Alvin for defending himself either.

"Fritzie?"

I shook my head rapidly. I must have shut Alvin out while I was thinking. "Huh?" I asked stupidly.

"Are we going to have that rematch or what?" Alvin asked impatiently. I shook my head.

"Uh, no thanks Alvin, I think there's something else I need to be doing," I said, returning her gaze to Theodore. Theodore looked up, and I beckoned him to follow.

Alvin folded his arms and humphed. I glared at Alvin, and he looked at me and waved his hands in front of him like he didn't mean anything of it. I just rolled my eyes and took a step out the front door into the evening light.

Theodore got up and followed me out the front door. Both of us walked around the left side of the house and sat down at a bench overlooking a small garden that Dave had been working on.

"What's bothering you dude?" I asked bluntly. Theodore looked at me hesitantly, before looking back down at his feet.

"It's nothing, really," Theodore said, a little more of an upset emotion to it.

"You're lying, Theodore," I said flatly, breaking away from my usual 'Teddy' addressing and resorting to a more serious tone. "Really, tell me, what's bothering you. I'm not Simon, you know I'm not dismissive and I don't try to jump to conclusions unless it's necessary, what's making you so mad that you look like you're going to explode?"

Theodore sighed. "Dave caught me trying to cook a little bit ago," he finally admitted.

I knew that wasn't all of it. After Dave came home, Doctor Harris concluded that Theodore would be out of his cast in two weeks, and will be able to start walking around without crutches in a few days. I knew it was something for him to a little angsty about, Theodore hasn't gotten to cook since the accident, but I know it wasn't all of it.

"Caught you cooking?" I asked in a blunter than usual fashion. "And why is that something that's affecting you like this?"

"Because, Dave doesn't want me to do anything but rest! I'm bored! I want to do things, you know?" Theodore complained.

I nodded, but it was more of an unsure nod. "I hear you, but I still don't understand why you're so mad about it."

Theodore sighed. "I'm not mad about _that_...I'm mad because Simon didn't even really give me a chance to let me talk to him my own way. He just blamed Alvin without thinking."

"But Alvin didn't do anything..." I said with a skeptical look. Theodore looked at me like I was stupid.

"That's what I mean! Simon doesn't even talk to me anymore except when he's eating, going to sleep, or checking on me," Theodore said with a shudder. "And even when he does talk to me, he doesn't say anything that means anything."

"So why don't _you_ talk to him about it?" I asked. Maybe trying to get Alvin to change a little bit was a bad idea. Maybe I needed to work with the one who was the most vulnerable. I didn't know how to really approach Theodore about it, but then again, he never left me an opening to try until now.

"What's the point?" Theodore groaned. "He doesn't even give me a chance. He's always like 'I'm too busy,' or 'I'm caught up in something,' or whatever."

"So be assertive, man. Turn him around and say something to him. You're obviously not right and he's totally oblivious to it. Say something to him," I said, trying to demonstrate what I mean by assertive.

"He's smart though, he should have figur-"

"Being book smart doesn't mean anything. Some of the smartest people have no common sense; you probably have to tell it to him straight out. If you want, I'll do it. I'm sick of this crap," I insisted.

Theodore paused for a minute. He looked at the grass in the evening's twilight intently, thinking about what he should do. When he made up his mind enough, he looked back at me and shook his head.

"No, I'll talk to him about it when I'm ready," he said with some confidence. This resulted in me slapping my forehead quite hard. In fact, I had to rub my head I hit myself that hard.

"Argh... Theodore!" I admonished, getting up to go storm right back towards the house.

"No, Fritzie, stop!" Theodore said with a bit of assertion in his voice. I stopped and quickly spun around. Well that caught me off guard. "Don't do it. I need to do some of these things on my own; you don't need to do everything for me. It might just take a little bit longer. Please?"

I sighed and nodded. I was quite reluctant to agree with it, but I guess no way could be better to work it out than the boys do that themselves, without me playing the ringleader. It would be much better to stay out of this one anyway.

"Fritzie, Theodore! Dinner's ready!" Dave called.

"Whoa, what the...? It's done already? How long were we outside?" I asked in confusion.

"About ten minutes. I didn't make anything special tonight," Dave said, motioning for Theodore and I to sit down. I could smell Spaghetti-O's, so it obviously wasn't something elaborate, but it smelled good none the less.

* * *

"Hmm, interesting. I never get to see what goes on in the Seville house through your eyes Fritzie," Tal said, apparently now comfortable and leaning his back on the arm of the sofa.

"You finally get what's been bugging me lately?" I asked impatiently. "They might not make it obvious to everyone but I think they're ready to start a royal rumble of epic proportions!" Sure, it was an exaggeration, but it did the trick.

"I wouldn't say 'epic' Frit-"

_"Whatever!"_I said with an exasperated sigh. "You get what I'm trying to say!"

Tal sighed then put his hand to his chin. "The way you make it sound, it looks like there is a major fight coming up within the next few days probably. But I think they really need to brawl it out anyways. It's probably for the best."

My eye twitched. However, my brother continued before I could shout at him about how them fighting isn't the solution.

"Look, I know you don't agree with me. I don't want them to fight either. But you have to understand Fritzie, all three of them sound extremely stressed out, and perhaps brawling it out is the only way for them to work this out." He paused briefly, "besides..." my older brother said, hesitating for a moment to see whether or not to continue.

"Besides...?" I asked, as a prompt meaning 'spit it out already!'

My older brother folded his arms and looked down. "Of course, this is how Hollywood rumors start."

I rolled my eyes. "Tal, I _am_ a Hollywood rumor. I'm not going to gallivant off saying that my older brother thinks something's wrong with my friends."

Tal looked up at me again. "You won't confront the boys about what I'm thinking?"

"Of course not-"

"Fritzie," my older brother cut me off quickly. "I'm being serious about this. This is just an idea; I'm not even qualified to really make an accurate judgment. I mean it, don't go off and telling everyone what I said, you got it?"

I blinked and then slowly nodded. I guess it doesn't hurt to be serious about this. "Got it."

"Okay, as I was saying," my older brother continued, loosening up a bit, "the boys sound extremely stressed out. There's a possibility it's a medical condition."

"Like shock?" I asked, a little confused by what he was saying.

"No, shock is something totally different. Shock means that their brain isn't functioning correctly, like what happened with Brittany. What I have in mind is quite a bit less dangerous, but it's still a bit of a problem that they need to work out. If I remember correctly, it's called 'post traumatic stress disorder.'"

I got off the couch and began pacing in front of it. "Post traumatic what?" I asked, more curious than distressed.

"Post traumatic stress disorder. Basically, something happens to make you so stressed out that you begin to act in ways you normally wouldn't."

"Oh," I said, stopping for a second to think.

"Think about it Fritzie, why do you think everybody's stressed out?" Tal asked me in a trivia-like fashion.

I blinked and then looked at myself. "Uh, me?"

Tal sighed. "Not exactly. I don't think you yourself are the problem here. What else could it be?"

An ear rose up. "Theodore's leg then."

Tal grinned. "Well there you go. That's the root of the problems."

"That's not it though!" I exclaimed, not satisfied with that just being the only reason.

"I don't get what you're talking about then-"

"Both of them are blaming Simon for their problems Tal. I don't think it's just because Teddy's leg is broken. Sure, it's what caused it I'm not saying that it's not, I just think that there's something else that I'm missing here!"

My older brother sighed and face-palmed. "Well Simon is being affected by this as well. I don't think Simon would naturally be spending more time in front of a computer while Theodore needs attention Fritzie."

"Well there has to be a reason Tal!" I remarked, staring at my brother with an annoyed look. He shook his head. "Do you have a clue as to why Simon is spending so much time in front of a computer?"

At first my brother gave me a puzzled look. A bit annoyed, yes, but puzzled.

"Pain in the ass," Tal whispered under his breath. I can hear him perfectly well, and he knows that. It was just the answer I was looking for though, because now the lingering thought is going to drive him nuts until he comes with a feasible solution.

"You said he's been doing research?" he asked me. I nodded. The annoyed look dropped from his face and instead turned to confusion. "No... that's ridiculous."

"What's ridiculous?" I asked.

"You said he's doing this kind of research _every day_?" he asked me again. Once again, I nodded, and my tail wagged a little bit. My brother's face got even more confused. "I don't see how this could be it... how could anyone be doing _this_ for three weeks?"

"On to something?" I asked. Tal didn't know how to look at me.

"Maybe, but it doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, I can understand for a couple of days... but three weeks?"

"Spit it out already!" I half yelled at my brother, which made him jump.

"Christ, Fritzie!" my older brother groaned, admonishing me. Well what can I say? He'd ramble on if I didn't. "Okay, okay. My guess is that he's actually over-researching his brother's injuries."

My face dropped to a half annoyed, half confused face. "...what?" My eye twitched.

"See, I knew you'd think I was crazy," my brother said with a sigh. "The problem is, if he is doing that I don't think he's doing this completely on purpose."

"...that made even less sense?" I said bluntly.

Tal just rolled his eyes. "I think Simon has good intentions. The problem is: I think he's gotten addicted to the computer through their stress problem."

"Oh! I get it, just like you?" I said with a more excited tone. Tal's face flattened.

"...Yeah. Just like me," Tal said with an unenthusiastic tone. "Point is I think he got addicted to researching his brother's injuries and now he's spending more time researching it...or maybe even other things, than paying attention to the world surrounding him. And just like how I was with mom when I was on the computer, you tend to try to shut out the outside world."

"How do you fix that?" I asked impatiently. Hell, if Tal's right this could be the end of the boys' problems!

Tal blinked at me, probably alarmed by my enthusiasm. "Well, the first step would be for Theodore to confront Simon about why he hasn't been paying attention to him."

I didn't hesitate at all. I was halfway down the hall before my brother knew what was going on.

"_**Hey!**_" Tall yelled to me, stopping me cold in my tracks. "What have I been trying to do the last three weeks!?"

I sighed. "Don't act impulsively," I said, guilty as charged.

"I do appreciate that you want to help, but you have to learn that Theodore has to fight his own battles. Sure, it will ease a whole lot of pressure, but you have to understand, if everyone helps fight his battles for him, it's going to come back and kick him in the ass if he's all by himself," Tal instructed to me. I nodded. After all, Teddy did request to me to let him do it.

"Besides," he added, looking at the clock on the wall by the computer. "It's past ten o'clock. They're probably sleeping," he said, rising slowly from the couch and smoothing his oversized clothes out, "and we should be sleeping too. I'm still in vocational tech school after all. I need to be at the top of my game if I'm serious about the job Dave snagged for me."

I sighed. "Okay," I said with some moderate agreeability to it. The two of us walked into the hallway leading out of the den.

"Good night, hon," Tal said, getting ready to enter the door to the room ten feet from the den on the left. I continued down the hallway to make a right where the hallway turned.

"Night, big bro," I said with a relatively sleepy tone. "Oh, and Tal?"

Tal groaned as he reopened the bedroom door. "Yes?"

I yawned and grinned at my older brother. "Thanks for hearing me out."

Tal gave me a sleepy grin. "Hey, it's what I'm here for," he said loosely, before closing the door to turn in for the night.

I made a right where the hallway curved and entered the door immediately to my right. Inside was my nice and fairly spacious bedroom, ten by twelve feet, all just for me. When we moved into the house, it came fully furnished, so all we had to do was personalize it a little bit.

I yawned again and stretched, satisfied now that my troubles were just slightly at rest again. Even if some things have been sour, I still had to say I was having the time of my life. The boys arguing wasn't a reason to bring my spirits down, and now that I finally have a potential lead as to what was going on, I turned the lights off and snuggled into bed and was ready for a well deserved night's sleep. Tomorrow was a new day.


	5. Chapter 4: Something Amiss Here

**I'm really at a loss for what to say. To try to sum it up, I almost tore this story down. I had a real rotten day at work, and I came home to find out that I still didn't have any feedback that I've been begging for, so I was about to just say screw it and let this story fade into obscurity. If you don't believe me, you can look at my DeviantART journal.**

**Look, I'm really sorry that I'm so anal about reviews and that I nag for them and whatnot. I do have a bit of an inferiority complex though, so when I don't see any, I assume that I'm not doing a good enough job, even though I got a major backlash when I said I was going to tear this down. So I'm going to try to stop nagging. What you have to say really does matter that much to me, that's all I'm going to say.**

**I did however have a few people say "I didn't know I could." _You don't need an account here to leave a review._ The only difference is you have to fill out your name manually every time and an e-mail address if you want me to contact you back, but you don't need an account to say something. But you can still leave feedback as the normal users, and that's what I've been trying to say all along.**

**Anyways, getting a little more lighthearted, there's another song in this chapter. If you're following along with the story and haven't bookmarked the playlist I made for the songs used, you might want to do that for added convenience so that you won't have to go back to my profile for the other ten or so songs in the story that are coming in the future. And as always, if you're a slow reader, you might want to read the story part first before you play the song. Totally optional of course.**

**The next chapter I need to edit a little bit because I realize I forgot a few things, but that's no problem, I can touch it up and still be able to have the next chapter up as early as Wednesday. I can't make any promises though, all depends on... well I'll let you guess that part.**

* * *

**Chapter 4**  
There's Something Amiss Here...

I slowly opened my eyes, to see a vivid array of oranges and purples, enveloping the wooded countryside that surrounded me. Wow, what time is it?

I picked myself up and dusted off, before looking at the ground and freaking out a little bit. Me? Outside? In the middle of nowhere? What?!? How long was I asleep? What time is it?

I flipped open my cell phone that was conveniently in my pocket. What? That's strange. I could have sworn that I never had my cell phone in my pocket when I went to sleep.

I looked at the date and time. Thursday, June 26, 2008. 7:15 PM. I almost literally dropped my cell phone. There's no way I was asleep for three days! When I get my hands on that fool that knocked me out I'm going to pulverize them.

I picked my cell phone up again and placed it back in my pocket, then began walking through the woods as the sky quickly began to darken. This is strange being out for three days and having no idea where I was, or for the fact I didn't feel any pain or hunger either.

I took a few steps, saw a branch that I was about to trip over a moment too late, then braced myself for a nice trip to help reality sink in. Problem was the tripping just never came.

Bewildered, I tried kicking the stick I was ultimately sure I was going to trip over by now. I blinked. My foot went right through it?

My eyes zeroed in on the nearest tree I could find, a tree that was to my right. With a little hesitation, I took two steps back after facing the tree and ran at it with all my might. Before impacting the tree, I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth and just waited for the inevitable.

But once again, I phased right through the tree as if I didn't exist...no. That's not possible! How can I just phase through a tree? I looked at my paws and just blinked. I could see the finest details.

'This has got to be the most vivid dream I've ever had...' I commented to myself, but the voice echoed and was distorted. My head cocked to the side and I lifted an ear. If only I had these vivid dreams on a regular basis. It would be a wonderful thing. It might make dragon slaying just a little more fun.

So what to do in a forest that serves no point as an actual forest? Do I just start floating above the treetops and pretend to fly? Actually, that sounded like a good idea. I jumped up to see if I could lift off, but apparently, gravity was still working, and I fell during this attempt. A ghostly silence fell over the area as not a single leaf crunched under my weight.

I rubbed my head, because unfortunately, it still hurt. I shook my head quickly to brush off the feeling when an old familiar feeling began to wash over me. The color began to fade away from the surrounding landscape.

'What the hell is this?' I asked to myself out loud. 'Am I going through another one of those death-like moments? I'm not falling for it this time, you stinker!' I yelled out immaturely, pointing up at the monotone yet still darkening sky.

* * *

**KEY SONG: STONE TEMPLE PILOTS - DOWN**

Suddenly, music began to play in my head. I have music play in my dreams sometimes, but this song didn't sound inviting whatever it was...

I looked around me, bewildered as to what the hell this was supposed to mean. It reminded me of one of those climactic boss fights towards the end of a game where the odds are well against you and if you lose you have to restart half the game.

Unsure of what to do, I just stood there waiting to see what in the world was going to pop out at me.

I heard a rustling in the bushes as I saw a figure almost my size pop out tiredly in front of me. It was a little hard to see at first but when I got a close enough look, I didn't like it.

_Pleased to meet you  
__Nice to know me_

It was a chipmunk! But this wasn't a chipmunk I recognized. This one was fatter than Theodore and had glasses much different to Simon; and he appeared to be very well injured and delirious.

_What's the message?  
__Will you show me?_

Calling out to him wouldn't do anything though, so I followed him to see where he was going.

_I've been waiting  
__A long time now_

He seemed to swagger almost uncontrollably, even falling once before getting back up and running intently in a direction.

_Now is the answer  
__You're all mine now!_

He almost acted as if he was trying to _follow_ something. Obviously, there wasn't anything else in front of me, so my only guess could have been it was following some kind of hallucination.

_Yeah...I've been here waiting for my Sunday girl  
__Yeah...I've been here waiting for my Sunday girl…down_

Given a few seconds, both of us popped out of some bushes alongside a road of some sort. Obviously tired, he attempted to cross the street. As soon as he made it to the other side though, he collapsed after three steps in a smoky heap, just as some car lights rounded the bend further south down the road.

_Pleased to meet you  
__Nice to know me_

Before I could get a good moment to study the car lights and what would happen next, my vision suddenly fell dark and I found myself in another place.

_What's the message?  
__Will you show me?_

An eerily familiar place. To my surprise, I found myself back in my own house. Naturally I would have loved to have been back in reality but it was still gray. I still must be dreaming.

_I've been waiting  
__A long time now_

I looked over at my brother, who had a real aggravated look right next to me.

_Now is the answer  
__You're all mine now_

I turned to see what he was gazing at but the door closed before I could watch what was going on.

_Yeah... I've been here waiting for my Sunday girl  
__Yeah... I've been here waiting for my Sunday girl... down_

Furious, I wanted to see what the hell was going on. My body was held stiff, unwilling to budge. Frustrated, I began to channel my good hearing to see if I could get a good grasp on my surroundings.

_Will you follow me... down now, down now?  
Will you follow me... down now, down now  
Will you follow me... down?!_

A voice rang to me as clear as day. "I'm going to make you wish you were dead by the time I'm done with you..."

I growled loudly in frustration, hoping to overcome the odd stiffness and try to go after the voice. To my amazement though, I moved more willingly than I thought and I was out that door in no time at all to witness _the very same chipmunk_ sitting in the passenger seat of an old beat up pick-up truck.

_[Solo]_

I didn't like the sound of this dream anymore, and I quickly transformed into my feral form as the car began to speed off.

A wave of adrenaline totally overcame me as I began to run real hard down the street, completely blocking out my surroundings and my vision tunneling in on my target in front of me.

Initially, I had a good clip on it. Actually, there's a good chance I would have caught up with the truck by the time it reached the stop sign at this rate. Problem is though; I suddenly felt myself lose balance out of nowhere and began to fall hard on the concrete. Before I hit though, I blacked out.

Then my vision returned to me and I found myself at somewhere completely different and standing upright again. I found myself at this shoddy looking ranch out in the middle of nowhere, and it was rather dark outside to really make out any detail. A shadowy guy was carrying a rather large object or a sack or something into the yard.

_Yeah...I've been here waiting for my Sunday Girl  
__Yeah...I've been here waiting for my Sunday Girl...down  
__Yeah...I've been here waiting for my Sunday girl...  
__Yeah...I've been here waiting for my Sunday girl...down_

The object kicked outward, a foot? I 'ran' over in front of the man carrying the strange parcel to get a better look. It was a man, quite overweight and probably shorter than my brother, and he was holding something about my size roughly by the scruff of the neck. He began to head for some hill looking thing, searching in the near darkness for something.

_Pleased to meet you  
__Nice to know me_

Satisfied, the man grunted and found a ring latch. He opened it up to reveal a cleverly hidden cellar in the yard. He held the object he was carrying in front of his face. It was...no...

_What's the message?_

It was that chipmunk! He threw him into the cellar and smoothed it off.

_Will (will) you (you) show (show) me.... (me...)_

And then, right as I was ready to charge at the guy, the dream went all white. The music vanished into thin air.

I was _not_ satisfied with what I saw. What does it all mean? What the hell is going on? I began to punch randomly into the whiteness to see if something would happen that would reveal an answer, or at least knock the jerk flat on his face.

Then something stopped my hand cold.

* * *

"Wake up! Wake up, Fritzie! Calm down! What's the matter with you?" a voice called to me, paranoid about what was going on.

I suddenly opened my eyes, followed by a quick closing because the light in the room was too bright. I suddenly began to lose balance and felt like I was falling. Something caught me though.

"Are you okay Fritzie? What's going on?" my brother asked, his voice laced with panic at... whatever I was doing.

"Ugh, I got a headache..." I mumbled. Tal rested me against my bed and sighed.

"Just calm down, you're awake now. It's all over," my brother said reassuringly, stroking the fur on my head gently. I opened my eyes very slowly.

"Tal, I had a really weird dream. It was so vivid, it almost has a feel to it like I'm supposed to remember what I saw," I said quietly, almost like I was going to cry.

I felt my body lift off the ground. I opened my eyes to see I was in my older brother's arms.

"It's okay baby girl, it's just a bad dream. I get them too sometimes. Just relax. It probably means nothing," my older brother said reassuringly. I felt my body ease up whatever tensions I had, it made me feel better. I couldn't help but hug him.

"Thanks big brudder," I said in an almost childlike fashion. I felt a bit more refreshed now that I got the mushy moment out of my system, and I think my brother picked up on it because he put me back down.

"You want some Tylenol? I'll take it easy on you today because you had a...characteristically unusual nightmare, but don't make this a constant excuse, you hear me?" my brother pointed out, reminding me of my impulse training.

I nodded, and rubbed my eyes sleepily. I don't see myself forgetting this nightmare for a little while. I mean, the date and time was specific. It had to mean something...right?

* * *

Three swift knocks rang at the Seville household around nine that morning.

"Alvin, can you get the door for me please?" Dave called out from inside the studio, the door cracked open just so he could keep an ear open for the boys.

"Alright, alright," Alvin said begrudgingly, slowly lifting from the couch to stumble over to the door. Today was his first day of summer break, so he really wanted to sit there and just be lazy. Slowly and sleepily, he opened the front door.

"Yes...?" Alvin said unwittingly.

"Morning Alvin," Tal said cheerfully. This shocked Alvin a little bit, because of all things he was more or less expecting Brittany to come over to nag him or something, even though they already left.

"Oh, hi Tal!" Alvin said, picking the tone up in his voice a bit before looking over at me. "'sup, Fritz."

"Hiya Alvin," I said with a deceivingly chipper tone. Last thing I need is the boys to worry about is my personal problems. "Kind of bored, trying to think of something to do."

"Hey guys," Dave said, coming out of his studio to greet my brother and I. "How's it going?"

"I'm doing alright today, Fritzie had a bit of a nightmare last night though," my brother said, rubbing my forehead playfully. My brother might think it's funny, but I sure didn't, because I just flared up.

"Did you have to announce it to the general public?" I growled quietly through clenched teeth, emphasizing the 'C' in public.

My brother looked at me with a rather shocked look on his face, before pulling an almost classic anime expression. You know: the kind with the exasperated face and the hand behind the head?

"Eheh, sorry Fritz," he said stupidly. I rolled my eyes and trudged my way further into the living room to sit next to Theodore.

"Anyways, I was wondering if I could talk to Simon for a second, Dave. I need his help with something," my brother asked, giving me a...I'm guessing 'it's not what you think' look. I rolled my eyes again.

"Uh, sure, go ahead Tal," Dave said unsurely. He looked at Alvin, who was sitting by Theodore and I now on the couch, as well as looking at us, and just shrugged.

My brother made his way up the stairs and knocked quietly on the boys' bedroom door. He heard a growl inside the room, followed by some rather aggravated trudging and almost throwing the door open. Simon opened his mouth to yell, before looking up to see me instead and flinched.

"Oh sorry Tal!" Simon said frantically.

"Uh... okay?" he said unsurely. I guess my brother didn't truly believe me until then. Alvin began snickering to himself knowing Simon was busted. "Listen, can I talk to you?"

"Uh, yeah, sure, of course," Simon said nervously, allowing my brother to come in the door before closing it behind him.

"Listen, I came here to ask you a question, away from where Fritzie could hear me," my brother said plaintively. Simon tugged on the collar of his turtleneck nervously.

"Uh, okay. Go ahead."

My brother's face flattened. "I'm not here to yell at you or anything, calm down."

Simon sighed in relief and headed back over to his computer. "Oh. What do you need?" He began calling up a website on his computer.

"Alright, I think it's about that time to consider giving Fritzie one final test to her impulse training."

"Oh, it's about that time huh? What seems to be the problem?" Simon inquired, pulling up some medical researching sites.

"Well, I'm trying to figure out what would be a suitable final test. Something that's a little different from the ordinary, like taking her out of town for a day or something," my brother explained.

Simon spun around in his chair. "Out of town?" he said with a confused look.

"Yeah, if I did it here, it would be too easy. That and I would rather do this alone. Just family, if you get what I mean."

Simon spun back around in his chair again, and began pulling up the search engine. "Oh, I see what you mean. You're asking me of a place I recommend visiting for a day so you can evaluate Fritzie on her achievements."

"In a nutshell, yes," my brother said. "Got any ideas?"

After calling up a page on bone fractures, Simon snapped his fingers and spun around in his chair again. "I got it! Why not try Malibu?"

My brother blinked at the suggestion. "Malibu?"

"Yeah, Malibu! It's a great choice. It's nice in the summertime, lots of boardwalks, beaches, good restaurants: Dave takes us there at least once every summer. Not to mention our mom lives just north of Malibu," Simon explained eagerly, spinning around in mid conversation to scroll down on the page that he's on.

My brother began to scratch the stubble on his chin. "Hm, that sounds awesome. A day at the beach, just the two of us. Sounds like a fun place to give an exam sort of deal."

"Yep, precisely. Who knows, maybe you'll meet some fine ladies there as well," Simon added with a pointing motion towards the wall.

My brother's eyebrows perked. "Nothing bad about that either, as long as they can get around the fact that I have a hyperactive terrier as a sister," he said with a grin. "Thanks for the idea Simon."

"No problem," Simon concluded. My brother continued to watch him though for a few moments, before approaching the screen. Both shocked and perplexed to see his assumption was probably correct, he ventured a small conversation as to what Simon actually was researching anyways.

"So, what'cha researching?" my brother asked, resting his arms on the back of Simon's computer chair.

"Oh, I'm reading about bone fractures. Fascinating subject," Simon stated, indifferent about the question.

"That's cool, how long have you been researching it, if I may ask," Tal said, not changing the mildly sleepy tone in his voice.

"I don't know. I haven't been keeping track of time. A few weeks probably," Simon said again in the same indifferent voice.

My brother's eye twitched, but he kept his cool about it. "A few weeks eh? That seems like a long time for just studying about fractures."

Simon glanced up at Tal before looking back at the monitor. "I just want to make sure I know everything I possibly can about aiding Theodore's injuries."

"Hm, I see," my brother noted, "is it helping at all?"

"Yes, the research is helping satisfactorily," Simon said with a more cheerful sliver to his mainly indifferent speech pattern. My brother shook his head though.

"Is it helping your brother out though?" he asked, rephrasing his question. This made Simon quiet and uneasy.

"To be honest, Theodore isn't taking to it very well," Simon finally said, changing his tone from indifferent to defeat. "It's like every time I check on him, he seems to get antsier about something but I can't figure out why and he's being rather stubborn about it."

My brother lifted his arms off the chair and stretched. "I see. Maybe it would be wise to try a different approach...?" he suggested, beginning to head for the door.

"Huh?" Simon asked, absolutely dumbstruck by the suggestion.

"Thanks again for the suggestion Simon, later," my brother said, walking out the bedroom door back towards the living room.

I could see him out of the corner of my eye as the three of us were watching TV.

"Was he able to help you?" Dave called from the kitchen, a mug of freshly brewed coffee in his hand as he walked out.

"Yep, thank you Dave," Tal said with a grin. "Anyways, I have to head off to work. Would you mind watching Fritzie for me?"

"Nope, not at all. She probably would have found her way here anyway later on this afternoon," Dave said as matter-of-factly. My brother's face went red in embarrassment.

"Heh heh, oh," he muttered feebly.

"Don't worry about it Tal. Have a good day at work today," Dave added. My brother's face cleared up and nodded.

"Okay, thanks. Later guys, and behave yourself Fritzie," my brother called to the house, focusing on me when it came to the behavioral part.

"Bye Tal," Dave, Alvin and Theodore chorused.

"Okay," I called back, and my brother closed the door behind him. I went back to spacing into the TV, but in the corner of the eye I saw a light upstairs. Glancing over, I could see Simon still standing in the doorway with a confused face. He looked at me, and I just cocked a brow at him. He shook his head and went back into his room again. Wonder what that was about?

* * *

**Anyone willing to surprise me?**


	6. Chapter 5: The Memory Remains

**Wow, I'm so sorry! I got into a funk halfway into editing the flashbacks in this chapter and then I totally forgot about the story entirely. I been warning you guys to keep on top of it because if nobody gives me feedback I won't update as much and this time it actually wasn't intentional. I'm not here to beg for reviews though.**

**I would like to note though, welcome back DiceRox09. :) I was wondering when you'd finally catch on to the story and I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. I would upload Chapter 6 right now as apology to you and the various other readers that don't make their presence known, but I have to go to work as soon as I click submit so I'll have Chapter 6 up when I get home from work tonight. Sound like a good deal?**

**I also went back and updated the flashback in Chapter 2. If you're interested, please sure to check back, the flashback was the only thing that was changed in that chapter.**

**Enjoy. (And hopefully I won't procrastinate so long on further chapters. Keep on me people! Remind me to upload chapters! XD)  
**-Narf

* * *

**Chapter 5:  
**The Memory Remains

_The front door opened just as Laura finished covering a plate of food and putting it in the refrigerator; a look made of a combination of worry, relief and scorn crossed her face as she watched Derrick take his boots off with something in his arms._

_"Derrick, where on _**earth**_ have you been?! You're almost an hour late, you had me worried sick!" Laura complained as Derrick looked at her sheepishly._

_"Didn't mean to keep you there, had to make a little detour today," Derrick said casually as he held up a wrapped up blanket in his arms. Laura looked at Derrick blankly while she tried to figure out what he brought home._

_"And what in the hell is that?" Laura said crossly, putting her arms to her waist for a brief moment before a small arm reached out of the blanket, startling her and causing her to scream._

_"__**What is that?!" **__Laura cried out, causing the small chipmunk toddler to pop out of the blanket in a frenzy and hide behind Derrick._

_"Would you chill out? You're scaring him," Derrick grumbled as he turned around and picked the chipmunk up in his arms._

_Laura clutched her chest to try to regain her composure. "I never would have thought _you_ of all people would bring an animal home! Don't you usually hunt them?"_

_Derrick grumbled and sighed. "Laura, that's deer. That's something totally different," he said flatly. The chipmunk looked around frantically trying to make heads or tails of what was going on around him._

_"Still, this doesn't make any sense! Why on earth would you bring something like _**that**_ home. Don't you hate an-"_

_"Laura!" Derrick cut in, silencing her and jerking his head downward towards the chipmunk. "What's wrong with having a little change of heart?"_

_Laura folded her arms and pointed her nose upward away from Derrick, causing his eye to twitch in aggravation. "It's fine that you had a change of heart, but I still don't understand why you would bring one _home_ with you."_

_Unsure of what to say next, and not exactly wanting to explain his motivations, he held the boy in front of him in a presentation-like fashion. "Well, he's kind of cute. You gotta' give him that."_

_Laura dropped her cross expression and got a closer look at the boy. Sighing, she smirked and walked closer to get a better examination as the boy gave Laura a shy and confused look. "Alright, I'll at least give him that," she said as she ruffled the boy's hair, causing him to giggle._

_"What are you going to name him?" Laura asked reluctantly as she gently took the boy out of his arms and began to cradle him. Once Derrick makes up his mind, it's hard to change it._

_"His name's Cody he says," Derrick said unsurely as he scratched the back of his neck._

_"Oh yeah, he told you his name," Laura muttered sarcastically._

_"Hi!" Cody chirped, causing Laura to raise eyebrow and almost drop him._

_"I guess so..." she said unsurely as she regained a good hold of Cody. As she looked at him, another pressing thought came to his mind. "What about his family? If he can talk, then he probably-"_

_Again, Derrick didn't exactly seem willing to answer that question either, and cut Laura off in mid sentence. "He was lost and came to me so we're his family now," Derrick said abruptly with a grin as he roughed Cody's hair up, causing Cody to hiccup._

_"Alright," Laura said reluctantly as she handed Cody back to Derrick, "since I know I can't talk you out of it, you figure out what we're going to do with him. It... might take me a while to get used to him being here." She headed out into the living room. "Your food is in the refrigerator when you're ready," she called as she headed for the bedroom on the far side of the living room. Derrick watched as she closed the door behind her._

_"Meh, don't mind her boy. She's really a great woman," Derrick said in earnest as he carried Cody towards a room at the end of a long hallway past the kitchen. "She'll warm up once ya' get to know her."_

_Cody grinned briefly before yawning and stretching. Once he was done, Derrick walked into the room at the end of the hall which revealed a small bedroom. He turned the light on and placed Cody down gently on the bed._

_"You sleep good, alright kid?" Derrick said warmly. Cody nodded and fell asleep almost immediately. When Derrick was sure that Cody was sleeping, he turned the light out of the room and took one last look into the room before closing the door behind him, a much more different and businessman like expression instead of the warm father like face he had been using for much of the night._

* * *

"Get up, boy!" An aggravated voice growled as Cody felt a hard smack to the face.

Cody opened his eyes to look around wildly in a panic, he saw his father standing over him, a nastily sour look on his face that could be seen even in the general darkness of the room.

"It's the fuckin' afternoon. Get up and stop daydreamin'!"

Cody picked himself up slowly from the spot he was sitting in. Apparently, he fell asleep in the spot he was sitting in the night before. Wasn't exactly the first time he did that.

His arm was aching almost as badly as when he first fell the previous night after his father pushed him on the ground, but he shrugged it off. It was probably a bad sprain so all he needed to do was take it extra careful. That's if he could of course.

He looked up at his father again, who was heading towards the kitchen. Cody reluctantly followed, unsure whether he was supposed to or not or if his father just wanted him to wake up or something.

His father took a few steps, then stopped and looked over his shoulder at Cody. "Why the hell are you followin' me?"

"You woke me up... I thought you needed me."

Derrick sighed. "I just don't want you sleepin' all day, because if I let you, you will."

'Well why not? It's not like I can _do_ anything...' Cody thought to himself.

"And don't you be thinkin' some stupid crap to yourself that you can't do anythin' 'round here. There's plenty of things to do in 'ere."

Cody's eye twitched. 'Like what? Stay in my room and not make any noise?'

Derrick then sighed. "You disgust me though, so just stay in your room and shut-" Derrick then cut himself off when Cody just shut the door behind him. This angered him, because he spun around and opened his door up again so fast that Cody didn't even finish sitting down. This didn't stop Cody though from sitting down and resting his arms on his knees.

"Don't just fuckin' walk in here without finishin' what I'm sayin' you little brat."

Cody sighed. Regardless of what he did he was going to get either a verbal thrashing or hit, so there was no way to win. He sat there and waited for the inevitable.

"Don't ignore me."

"It's the same thing every day..." Cody muttered to himself under his breath.

Unsurprising enough, his father made an advance on him. What ended up surprising Cody was the choice of punishment. Instead of getting hit like what usually happened, his father seized his right arm roughly and began to twist it.

Cody became relatively adept at concealing pain, and he even picked up somewhat of a tolerance to it, however this was a whole new shock all over again because his arm was assumedly sprained already. This time it hurt Cody badly enough for him to start squealing like a stuck pig.

"Argh! Dad!!" Cody complained, but it his father wasn't satisfied with it until he felt a slight pop in his wrist before crudely dropping him on the floor.

"I told you not to fuckin' ignore me!" Derrick snarled storming out the bedroom door and smashing the door closed with a sickening crack that actually broke the top hinge.

"Well what am I supposed to do!? You tell me not to just sit there and then just stay in my room!" Cody cried out painfully. "It doesn't make any sense!"

Cody stared blindly at the door, eyes wide open and tears flowing readily down his face. Derrick was already down the hallway though and didn't make any effort to come back into Cody's room.

In a great deal of pain, he winced his eyes closed tightly and once again tried to wrench himself back into his thoughts. At least he wouldn't be in as much pain if he wasn't focused on it.

* * *

_Laura stood at the end of the driveway as she waited for a school bus to make it's way down the long dirt street in front of her. When it finally came into sight, she breathed a sigh of relief._

_The bus took it's time as it drove slowly down the bumpy dirt road, causing Laura to tap her foot impatiently. But when it finally stopped and the doors opened, she loosened up and flashed a nervous smile at the bus driver._

_"Hiya Ms. Wilson," the bus driver said with a nod._

_"Hi there, was he on his best behavior?" Laura asked nervously as five year old Cody began to walk down the aisle towards the steps off the bus._

_"Perfect, in fact I think he's a little too good, I'm kind of worried about him," the bus driver said with a laugh. When Laura shot a confused look the bus driver cleared his throat. "Just kidding, but he's a good kid, I don't think he'll be any trouble."_

_Laura sighed in relief as Cody jumped and bounced his way down the steps. "That's good to hear."_

_"Hi Laura!" Cody piped as he got hold of solid ground as he ran to Laura for a hug._

_"You have a good day now Ms. Wilson," the bus driver said as he released the air brake and closed the door to move on. Today was Cody's first day of kindergarten._

_"Hey hon, how was school today?" Laura asked. Cody wrinkled his nose._

_"The people were looking at me funny," he said rather glumly. Laura chuckled and rubbed the top of his head reassuringly._

_"Aw, it's alright dear. The people don't really know you yet. I'm sure they'll get to like you in no time."_

_"O-kay!" Cody said happily as he pointed up towards the sky. Over the past few years Laura had gotten used to him being around and actually taken quite a liking to him considering his naturally gentle personality._

_Laura was about to speak but Derrick came out the door in a huff and ran over to Cody, picking him up and lifting him up high into the air making him laugh._

_"Hey there kiddo, you have fun in school today?" Derrick asked enthusiastically and Cody giggled after being spun through the air._

_"Yeah daddy. We made pictures and took naps. The teacher lady even gave me a cookie for finding everyone in hide and seek!" Cody said happily as he reached into his backpack and held it out. "See?"_

_Derrick couldn't help but laugh about it. "Well that's great, good to know you had fun." Cody nodded as he took a nibble into the cookie which he was apparently saving for when he got home._

_"That's a good cookie, right?" Derrick asked. Cody nodded, which was the answer Derrick was looking for. "I'll let you have another one if you can find something out in the yard for me."_

_Cody looked up longingly at his dad as he quickly finished the cookie he was eating. "Really?" he asked with a mouthful._

_"Really! All you need to do, is find the teddy bear I hid in the yard," Derrick instructed._

_Cody began to shake with excitement. "I'll go find it right now!" he said as he ran off._

_"If you find it in less than five minutes I'll give you two!" Derrick shouted across the yard. Laura walked quietly right next to Derrick._

_"Two cookies is a little much, don't you think?" Laura asked. "He might not be able to go to sleep tonight."_

_Derrick didn't take his eyes off the yard as he gazed out with the same businessman like look that he adopted since the day he brought Cody home. "Eh, I don't think two cookies wouldn't hurt."_

_Laura sighed and shuffled back off into the house. "Alright dear, if you insist. I'm going to go inside, it's too hot out here for me."_

_Derrick turned his head to watch Laura walk up the steps and open the door. "Alright, I'll be inside in a min-"_

_"Daddy daddy daddy! I found it! I found it!" Cody shouted as he jumped up and down with a small teddy bear in his hands. causing Derrick to jump in surprise._

_"Jesus Christ Cody..." Derrick muttered as he crouched down to look at Cody's excited face. "Wow, you found it really fast. That wasn't even a minute, no wonder you found everyone in hide and seek," he said with surprise._

_"I know! I'm really good at this!" Cody said excitedly._

_"Alright, it looks like I owe you two cookies then," Derrick said in fake defeat, causing Cody to bounce up and say 'yay' loudly. "But promise me you'll go to bed early tonight."_

_"I will! I will!" Cody said happily. Derrick picked Cody's tiny body up and carried him inside._

_"Alright, take it easy kid," Derrick grunted as he opened the front door to walk inside._

* * *

A clattering noise made Cody snap back into reality once again. Looking down, he found a plate spinning in front of him, and a shadow retreat from the room. It was another plate of meat, which made Cody feel even more disappointed.

He just stared at the plate. Aside from the usual sick feeling that he got from eating the meat, today he had no appetite at all. It wouldn't have made a difference if it were a prime rib roast, or even a plateful of carrots and celery, he just couldn't eat. The pain in his arm was still well resounding and he was actually completely shocked with how unusually brutal his father was earlier.

In fact, he began to question his own tolerance to what his father was doing. Derrick progressively got worse and worse with the punishments, and now he was actually deliberately injuring him. It was starting to not be worth it to see if Laura would ever come back.

Sure that if he was going to eat it wouldn't be until well later or even tomorrow, and too weak to do anything about himself, he went back into his collective thoughts once again.

* * *

_"Yeh-low?" Derrick slurred, a little inebriated._

_Three days after Laura left, Cody walked into the living room. He looked at his dad, who was a bit confused. However, that look of confusion turned to panic._

_**"She what?!" **__Derrick almost screamed into the phone._

_Cody looked worriedly at his father, whose face was beginning to get more and more enraged and wound up, his eyes were beginning to water terribly._

_"No, no. That can't be true! That can't fucking be true!" he yelled. After a pause, Derrick threw the phone straight into the floor, breaking it into six pieces and tearing up some of the flooring in the process._

_"Dad? What's wrong?!" Cody cried out worriedly._

_"Go to your room, now!" Derrick yelled. Cody wasn't ready to just back up._

_"What's wrong? Tell me!" Cody said, jumping up and down trying to get attention._

_"Get in your goddamn room. Right. Now," Derrick snarled. Cody without a second guessing this time bolted towards his room not completely sure what was going on._

_He sat down on his bed and listened to the house as several loud crashing noises were made before the front door slammed and the pick-up truck screeched out of the driveway._

_As soon as the truck couldn't be heard, he stepped out of his room to see what all the noise he heard was about. Running down the hallway, he noticed right off the bat that the kitchen was pretty well destroyed. Pots and pans littered all about the kitchen, a couple of fresh holes in the walls. Even some of the floor tiling was freshly broken off._

_Shocked and a little terrified, he then went in to investigate the living room which was all very well destroyed._

_"What the heck just happened?" Cody asked in bewilderment. All of the pictures on top of the entertainment center that housed the TV were destroyed and shattered, several adornments littered about the room, and some visible flooring was ripped up._

_Cody took three steps and felt a picture crunch underneath his feet. A picture of him with his parents was in the broken frame. Derrick was dressed in a tuxedo on one side, and Laura was looking charming with a wide smile on her face on the other; and both of them were proudly putting a hand on each of his shoulders._

_Why did is dad just destroy the house so suddenly? What happened? And was his father going to come back?_

_Unsure of what to do after this violent outburst, he took the photograph in his hands and ran over to his room._

_"Just in case..." he said, walking over to his bed and crouching on the floor, lifting his mattress partly off his box-spring. With great care, he slid the photograph in the space he made and put the bed back where it was. "I don't want to lose this."_

* * *

"So are yer' going to fuckin' eat you pain in the ass?" a voice rudely slurred, once again grounding Cody back into the painful reality he was in.

Cody looked up at his dad, who once again had a threatening look on his face. Despite not being hungry, Cody picked the steak up with his left hand and began reluctantly chewing on his food. He didn't want to eat it, but at this point, he didn't want to be in any more pain that he already was.

His father's face lightened a little bit, but still remained quite apathetic as he turned around to leave the room. "That's what I thought," he said as he left.

Cody took a good look at his right hand, which at this point was swelling up nicely now; swollen enough for him not to be able to bend his fingers.

After reluctantly finishing the whole steak, (doing whatever he could to keep the ever-disgusting meal down), he got up to stretch and to bring his plate to the kitchen and grab a glass of water or two to drink since he hadn't had anything to drink in almost a day and needed to do something to keep himself from dehydrating.

He dropped the plate quietly into the sink and grabbed a plastic cup from the dusty cabinets, rinsing it briefly before filling it up with lukewarm tap water. His father stood in the kitchen doorway and watched Cody hammer down two cups of water without saying a word.

"I see yer finished it this time," Derrick slurred. Cody groaned to himself quietly as he tried not to let the queasy feeling overtake him.

"What did I tell yer about complainin'?" Derrick snarled, not satisfied with his reaction. Cody began to hyperventilate after all the stress that happened over the course of the day.

"Please...no more...no more pain today..." Cody pleaded as he began to stagger towards his room, moving more and more sluggishly as he tried to fight off the urge to pass out or freak out in the hallway.

Derrick groaned to himself as he left the kitchen doorway to go back into the living room to Cody's relief. However, he was reluctant to react on it though, and even as relieved as he was he still didn't feel all that much better.

As he got back into his room, he immediately crawled into bed and curled up on his left side; to be careful not to further injure his arm.

He stared at the wall for a few moments and sighed.

'Where are you Laura? Why did you leave me here? Why didn't you come back for me?' Cody thought to himself, whimpering softly and wondering when all the torture he endured over the better part of the last year would finally come to an end.

* * *

**-Review!**


	7. Chapter 6: Further Tensions

**Wow, wasn't expecting to have a couple of reviews waiting for me when I got home. Thanks a bunch guys! You put a smile on my face. :)**

**As promised, here's Chapter 6. The story over on the boys' side I'll admit got off to a rather slow start but if you're looking for an action fix the story finally starts to pick up the pace a little bit, even if this chapter is one of the shortest. :D Enjoy!  
**-Narf

* * *

**Chapter 6  
**Further Tensions

"Hah! You don't think you can catch me that easily, could you?" I said tauntingly to Alvin, looking down from the top of Alvin's backyard shed with a cheeky grin on my face.

"Aw, that's no fair!" Alvin complained, pointing at me with an overly aggravated look on his face, perhaps because he was looking up at me and directly at the late afternoon sun. "Get down from the shed, I can't see you! The sun is in my eyes!"

"So don't look at me then, silly," I said, blowing Alvin a raspberry and dancing on the roof to myself.

Theodore was outside in the backyard as well, and he crutched over behind Alvin and tried squinting his eyes to see me as well.

"Maybe you should get off the shed Fritzie; it could be dangerous up there!" Theodore added.

Alvin and I were outside role-playing, or as the grown-ups would call it 'playing pretend,' as two brave adventurers engaging in a sword fight to see who will win the fabled treasure of Seville. Or, well in this case, whoever could go inside and get a drink first. I was losing, so I had to take some drastic measures.

"Here? Dangerous? Hah! Nonsense, I laugh in the face of dang-whooaaa!" I said smugly, before I began to teeter on top of the shed. With a little bit of a struggle, I managed to regain my balance, but boy that was scary.

"See?" Theodore said with a gasp. Alvin was rubbing his eyes trying to shake off the blue spots that began to collect in his field of vision.

"Alright, alright Teddy. I'll get down," I agreed hastily with Theodore and climbed down the log pile behind the shed that I used to get up there in the first place. I've tempted fate enough already I don't need to break my neck falling off of a six foot high tin garden shed.

Alvin didn't hesitate, and took the opportunity to thwack me with a water noodle as soon as I popped out from behind the shed. In the ultra dramatic fashion, I began to fake a Shakespearian-esque death scene.

"Alas, for the wind braces the fall, I bid this cruel world adieu. And lest be known, I will be back one day, and steal all your marvel comic books," I said dramatically, staggering and swaying, even occasionally putting the back of my paw to my forehead for added effect. "Goodbye, cruel world..." And when it was all said and done, I gently lay on my side in the grass, and made a satisfying 'gluck' noise.

Alvin and Theodore joined me on the grass for a nice little laughing fit.

"Ahahahaha! That's like something Alvin would do!" Theodore cried out in between laughs.

"Haha hey, that was pretty good!" Alvin added in the cackling laughing fit. "If only Simon could understand our genius!"

After laughing a little bit, I got up off the ground and brushed my clothes off. "Yeah, if only he could just get off the computer for a change," I said in between sniggering and helping Alvin and Theodore off the ground.

"Alright, I suppose you win then Alvin. You get to claim the 'fabled treasure of the Seville.'" I said, bowing towards Alvin in a gentleman like fashion. I may be a girl, but hell, curtseys are just lame.

Alvin licked his lips and looked up towards the sky. "I wonder what there is to drink..."

Alvin walked faster to get ahead of us, while I hung back a little and walked inside with Theodore.

"So, that was fun to watch, wasn't it?" I asked, nudging Theodore playfully. Theodore grinned.

"Yeah, I needed that!" Theodore said happily, before I heard a grunt that was a completely different tone than what I was expecting. I looked at Theodore to see him slightly agitated.

"Huh?" I mumbled, looking in front of me to see Simon standing by the staircase, with just as confused a look on his face as I had mine.

"Whoa, what's gotten into him?" Simon asked, almost sounding sarcastic. At first glance I thought Alvin said that.

I bit my lip, remembering both Theodore and Tal telling me to stay out of this, so I just shrugged in confusion and went to go catch up with Alvin; I could use that drink right about now.

"Theodore, what's bothering you?" Simon asked, a little more flatly. Theodore folded his arms together and looked away.

"You're just here to check on me, right?" Theodore said sarcastically. Alvin looked at his glass of peach cocktail as if he drank something funny, before he went to take a sip.

"Not necessarily, I wanted to come down here to try something out on you-"

"I don't care." Theodore said plainly and bluntly, and glared at Simon.

Alvin spit his drink all over me.

"Alvin!" I admonished, picking up my shirt and looking at the juice.

"Sorry," Alvin said, eyes widening, "I wasn't expecting that."

Alvin ran out into the living room to see Theodore and Simon start to get very angry and frustrated with each other, while I went to go find a towel to clean as much juice off of me as I could. Okay... I guess I can't blame Alvin for spitting his drink out. But by God why all over me!?

"What the hell is your problem?" Simon admonished angrily, glaring at Theodore right back.

"No, what the hell is _your_ problem?" Theodore declared accusingly. Alvin just stood there and blinked.

"Alvin did you-"

"Would you stop blaming Alvin?!" Theodore yelled out. Dave at this point figured that was enough of the arguing, because the studio door opened.

"Alright boys, that's enough! What's wrong with you three now?" He complained. I walked out of the kitchen with the dishwashing towel still in my hand.

"He started it!" Theodore and Simon traded accusing fingers. I took my place to stand right next to Alvin with practically the same confused took on our faces.

Dave looked at Alvin and blinked. "Am I seeing things?" Dave asked in confusion. Alvin shook his head.

"Uh, no Dave?" Alvin questioned, unsure of what was going to happen next.

Dave looked at Simon and Theodore, then back at Alvin again. "Okay, I've seen you three boys acting really strange lately, but I've never seen _this _happen before. Usually it's you and Simon fighting, Alvin, but this?"

Alvin shrugged genuinely.

"I bet he did though!" Simon said in frustration.

"Alvin didn't do anything!" Theodore said, accidentally stomping his foot on the ground with his broken foot.

"Argh, Theodore!" Dave admonished, "Be careful, I don't want you stomping with that foot!"

Theodore shook his head quickly then turned two shades of red. "Oops. Sorry Dave."

Dave sighed and grit his teeth. "Alright, as interesting of a feel this is to say the least, Alvin's apparently innocent in this whole thing."

Alvin sighed in relief out of habit. I just stared in confusion; there really wasn't anything else I _could_ do. I don't like just standing on the sidelines at all, I want to solve this problem for once and for all, but I'm being forced to do so.

"As for you two, I want you two to stop fighting right now or else you both are grounded. Got it?" Dave warned Simon and Theodore. The two of them nodded, and watched Dave retreat back into the studio.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Simon and Theodore traded combat stances and glares at each other, while Alvin and I just stared awkwardly.

"This isn't over yet," the two of them said to each other quietly. And with that, Simon went back upstairs whilst Theodore sat back down on the couch, ready to shut out the world for the rest of the day.

"What did I just watch?" Alvin asked, dumbfounded by the whole thing.

I looked back at Alvin and shook my head. "I think the three of you are changing in personalities."

"That don't make no sense," Alvin said to himself curiously. I sighed.

"Uh, I think you should open your eyes, bud," I said bitterly. "I don't think the three of you are aware just how much you all changed in the last two weeks."

Alvin looked over at Theodore, who wasn't making any effort to move or change his expression, then looked up the stairs. "I guess my brothers are changing, aren't they?"

I leaned on Alvin's shoulder. "They aren't the only ones, Alvin."

Alvin shifted to the side and I lost my balance and fell to the floor. "Hey, what was that for?"

"I should be asking you the same thing," He said bitterly. I sighed in exasperation and quickly picked myself up.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way!" I said in my defense. "Change doesn't mean it's bad. I'm just saying that you're acting differently too! Didn't I argue with you about this yesterday?!"

Alvin folded his arms and looked at me like he was not impressed. I sighed.

"Alvin, you're the only one that's really making any sense anymore," I said, half-lying. I know what's wrong with Theodore, and my brother made a reasonable stab at why Simon's acting the way he was, but I didn't want him to know I knew that stuff. "It's an interesting twist, but it doesn't feel right."

Alvin softened up a little bit, then looked away from me with a disappointed look on his face. A worried look crossed my face, only because I don't understand what's going on in Alvin's mind right now. Deep down inside, I'm sure he wants things to go back to normal. "I don't know what to say..."

"Just keep your sanity Alvin," I remarked. "Your brothers are going downhill and they need for you to be strong for them."

"But that's usually Simon's job!" Alvin complained to me, oddly enough. I had to sigh, not from dismay or disappointment, but more out of concern.

"That's why it's ever more important you do, because Simon's lost right now," I said with an uneasy voice. I licked the roof of my mouth, even the words didn't taste right. It was a warning sign that I was starting to get really upset. "And Theodore needs you."

Alvin looked at me kind of funny. I gave him an unsure look. "He needs me...?" he asked.

This sent of a few warning bells in my mind. Things were starting to break down right underneath their feet, and I was just ready to spit it out.

_"Look, I know you don't agree with me. I don't want them to fight either. But you have to understand Fritzie, all three of them sound extremely stressed out, and perhaps brawling it out is the only way for them to work this out."_

I sighed, knowing I had to just keep my mouth shut. That is the absolute hardest thing for me to do at this point. "Yeah, he needs you. There's only so much I can do. Sometimes, he needs the comfort only a brother can give him, you dig?"

Well, I guess it doesn't hurt to point him in the right direction. If Alvin can get Theodore to talk to him, maybe this whole mess will finally start solving itself. Actually, to be completely honest, I didn't feel comfortable there anymore. Seeing Simon and Theodore fight like that kind of weirds me out, seeing it was the complete opposite as to what it was that very first night, plus I was gradually beginning to feel more and more upset. So I had my mind made up on going home rather early tonight.

Alvin looked up the stairs, and then looked at me with a direly confused look. "I guess so."

I nodded; at least he got the point. I started heading for the front door.

"Hey, where are you going?" Alvin asked hurriedly. I looked back at him when I had the door half open.

"I think I should go home for this Al. I think you three need to work out your problems your way. You understand me, right?"

Alvin looked at me quite chillingly. It looked almost like Theodore now, like he was in a foggy place all by himself and completely clueless as to what to do but curl up into a ball and cry. Still, despite the look, he nodded. "I'll see you later then."

I smiled weakly, closed the door behind me quietly and all but ran home. A stress breakdown was already beginning to overwhelm me.

I ran into my house as fast as I could, closed the door behind me and took a look at the nicely furnished living room. Inside our living room we had two marble colored couches, at opposite corners of the living room, and a nice thirty-two inch TV sitting in front of the wall right next to me. Various plants littered about the living room on top of two end tables and a coffee table in the middle, to give it a nice and lively feeling, a feeling of comfort. Comfort that I really needed right now.

I walked over to the couch opposite of the TV and grabbed the remote, flipped on a cartoon channel and put it down. Then I curled up into a ball on the couch, knees in my arms, and watched cartoons as my loss of control of my emotions had finally overtaken me.

* * *

**I should have the next chapter up within the next two days as long as nothing happens on my end. In the meantime though, I'm looking forward to anything you guys may have to say if so. :)**


	8. Chapter 7: Conjuring a Plan

**My apologies. I'm going to keep this short, I contracted some kind of stomach infection of some sort (presumably stomach flu) and I've been sick for the last five or six days (and still am sick) so my apologies for not having the chapter up sooner. This is one of the few times I could sit in front of the computer for more than a few minutes in the past few days.**

**Things are beginning to come to a head between our intrepid trio. What will happen next? Read on and find out.**

* * *

**Chapter 7**  
Conjuring a Plan

A few moments passed while Alvin remained standing near the doorway, not sure what to do next. Dave came out of the studio finally to get a start on cooking dinner for the four of us.

"Hey Alvin," Dave said in his typical cheerful tone, rubbing his son's hat as he walked into the kitchen. He grabbed the cutting board hanging underneath the cabinet before taking a look over at Alvin again.

"Hey, where's Fritzie? It's not like her to not be hovering around here somewhere."

"She went home, Dave," Alvin said plaintively. Dave began scratching his head.

"Now that's strange. It's not like her to just leave all of a sudden," Dave commented as he looked through the refrigerator.

"I think she got wierded out from them fighting or something."

Dave sighed. "I don't blame her for that then. She's been so busy trying to break up your squabbles I can only bet it's starting to get to her."

Alvin didn't say a word; he was too busy thinking about what I said.

"No matter, Tal should be home fairly soon anyways so I'm sure he'll work out whatever's bothering her," Dave concluded. "Now where is that cheese grater?" he asked rhetorically.

Alvin headed for the living room couch, where Theodore was lying down, just as frustrated as ever.

"Uh, Theodore?" Alvin asked unsurely. Theodore kept his eyes closed and groaned.

"What do you want?" Theodore asked acerbically.

Alvin clenched his fists together and got ready to growl, but he stopped himself and tried to recollect his thoughts. "Theodore, I'm not Simon you know."

"Yeah I know, Alvin. What do you want?"

Alvin's eye twitched, and once again he got ready to whip out a snobby comment back. But, he calmed himself down to give it another try.

"Can I talk to you?" Alvin asked, in as sincere a voice he could muster. Theodore opened an eye to shoot a look right through Alvin.

"About...?" Theodore said bluntly. Alvin this time couldn't help but flare up a bit in anger.

"Fine, if you don't want me to try and help you out then that makes you just as bad as Simon," Alvin complained loudly.

"I heard that!" Simon yelled out from the bedroom door.

"Go back on the computer!" Alvin screamed back. Simon sighed irritably and closed the door behind him. Dave sighed loudly from inside the kitchen.

"I bet you don't even know how to help me," Theodore said in annoyance. This brought Alvin over that very thin ledge, because with that snarky remark, Alvin smacked his brother right across the face.

"Oww! What was that for?" Theodore complained.

Alvin grabbed Theodore roughly by the turtleneck and shook his head wildly back and forth. "Get a hold of yourself Theodore!" He placed him down and sat down crudely in the armchair right next to the couch.

"God damn it, why is it that everybody acts like the only thing I care about is myself," Alvin grumbled to himself, audible enough for Theodore to hear but not Dave. "I'm not _always_ like that." And with that, he got up and went out the back door right next to the studio to sit down on the back porch quietly.

Theodore looked up from the couch, a sorry and an apologetic look spread across his face as he realized that he was so delusional that he ignored one of the more kindhearted gestures that his brother offered.

Carefully, he got up from the couch, not even bothering to pick the crutches up off the floor and limped over towards the back door.

Alvin stared off out into space, intentionally ignoring the fact that Theodore was standing at the back door behind him. Theodore looked guiltily at Alvin and sighed.

"I'm sorry Alvin," Theodore said quietly. "I'm not really feeling right."

Alvin carefully studied his brother, standing before him with blatant disregard of Dave's insistent nagging about the crutches. He smirked. "Fine."

Theodore sat down on the back steps and put his head in his arms, a very melancholy expression was rather visible in his posture.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" he asked, not lifting his head up out of his arms.

Alvin was caught at what to say. Sure, he _knew_ what he wanted to ask, but it was much harder to do than it sounded.

"Alvin?" Theodore asked. Alvin shook his head.

"Hold on, this is a little hard, you get it don't you?" Alvin commented. Theodore shook his head, but a forgiving head shake.

"Oh Alvin..." Theodore said in playful dismay. "Can't you just forget about the reputation? We're family, you know?"

Alvin sighed. "You're right." Theodore grinned. "Listen, I just want to know...what's bugging you?"

Theodore was unsure whether to be genuinely happy or cry. Usually the only one who was there to try to fix every problem was Fritzie, but she was nowhere in sight.

After a lengthy pause, Alvin continued. "The way you and Simon were fighting, and how fast your mood changed...it's not like you. I'm w...w-" Alvin stammered, having some trouble spitting the word out, "worried...about you. It's s-scary."

Theodore was very quick to hug Alvin, which made him feel a bit more comfortable about the situation, lest he would actually admit that of course.

Of course after the quick embrace, Theodore was a little hard to admit what was bugging him as well.

"I...I don't know how to say it," Theodore commented, lost on what to do at this point. Alvin glanced over to Theodore noticing the same problem he had telling Theodore his concerns.

"Hey, if I can do it, you can do it," Alvin said reassuringly. This made Theodore feel better, because he didn't look as lost.

"I guess you're right," Theodore said with a sigh. "It's Simon that's bugging me."

"Hah! I knew it! That little intelligent prick was blaming the wrong 'munk the whole time!" Alvin said victoriously.

"No, Alvin, it's not the reason you're thinking," Theodore complained, trying to get his brother to come back down to earth again before he lost his opportunity to talk to him.

Alvin looked down at Theodore and sighed, then sat down again. Rubbing it in Simon's face would have to wait for once.

"You see, all he's been doing lately is just checking on me every once in a while," Theodore said with a sigh.

"Yeah, what's the problem with it?" Alvin asked, not getting the point.

"Don't you get it Alvin? That's the _only_ time he ever pays attention to me anymore! I don't know what I did wrong to deserve it."

Alvin groaned. "It's because of that stupid computer, isn't it?" Alvin commented irritably.

"Yeah! I don't know what he's looking at that's so...so important! You think that he would at least step off and hang out with us sometimes, right?" Theodore said softly.

"Hmm... yeah. I know Simon likes to do his smart whatever nonsense, but he's gone a little too far this time."

"That makes three of us then," Theodore said. Alvin blinked and looked at his brother with a confused expression.

"Three of us? You mean Fritzie knows about this too?"

Theodore nodded. "She forced it out of me last night, yeah."

"Well why didn't she stop you two from fighting earlier?" Alvin asked angrily. Theodore made a motion for Alvin to calm down.

"I told her not to," Theodore admitted. Alvin looked at Theodore and sighed. "I...I want to do this on my own. I just..."

"Just what?"

Theodore bit his lip, before sighing. "I just don't know how to," he finally admitted.

Alvin stared off into the quickly darkening skies, thinking about how to fix the situation. After a few moments, a twinkle appeared in his eye. Theodore picked up on this and turned to Alvin with a confused look.

"Well, if we're going to get anywhere with this, there's only one way we can do it," Alvin said with confidence.

"How?"

Alvin grinned in satisfaction. "Elementary my dear Watson," Alvin said, mocking Simon, "we get rid of the computer."

* * *

"This vegetable baked ziti came out awesome, Dave!" Alvin piped in excitedly, scoffing down his food so fast that if he tried faster he would choke on his fork.

"Yeah, thanks Dave!" Theodore piped in, digging in as well, although not as fast as Alvin.

Simon nodded casually as he ate his food slower than his two obviously more lively brothers.

"Simon, what's the matter? You're eating slower than you usually do," Dave commented.

"Huh? Oh, nothing Dave. Got a headache, that's all," Simon said almost apathetically.

"Simon, you're really worrying me about how much time you spend in front of your computer day in and day out. Maybe you should take a rest from it for a few days," Dave commented. Alvin almost immediately started coughing.

"Ack, sorry," Alvin said in between coughs, "eating too fast."

Dave shook his head and returned focus on Simon.

"Yeah, maybe I should," Simon commented, almost totally uninterested with what Dave was saying.

'That doesn't mean that he's going to stop,' Alvin thought to himself, continuing to eat the food down as quickly as he could. He looked over at Simon, who was staring off into space not even paying attention to anything that was going on around him.

Theodore picked up on this as well and looked over at Alvin who went back to relentless eating. 'Not buying it either, eh?' Theodore said silently in his head while he was looking at Alvin. Alvin stopped eating for a second and nodded very subtly.

In almost record time, Alvin finished his plate and bolted up the stairs, leaving the plate on the table carelessly.

Dave reluctantly picked up the plate and looked over at Theodore. "I wonder what's gotten into him..."

Theodore shrugged. "Beats me."

Dave put the plate in the sink and noticed that Simon was still staring off into space, only taken two bites of his food so far. He clapped his hands to get his attention.

"Huh, what?" Simon asked in confusion, looking around the room wildly as to where the noise came from.

"Simon, are you sure you're alright? You've been acting very strange today," Dave insisted. Simon nodded his head.

"Yeah, I am, honestly," he said, taking another bite of food before staring off into space again. Dave sighed, knowing he wasn't going to get an answer out of Simon (oddly enough) and went back to washing Alvin's plate.

Theodore finished second, without taking a second helping for a change, and crutched his way over to Dave to put his plate in the sink.

"Theodore, that's unusual for you. No second helpings this time?" Dave asked.

"No, I do want seconds. Just a little later," Theodore said confidently, before heading upstairs as well.

Dave scratched his head to that too, because usually there weren't any leftovers. "Alright, I'll save some in the fridge then."

After washing Theodore's plate, Dave noticed that Simon was once again spaced out in his own little fantasy world. Dave rubbed Simon's back gently.

"Alright, I see you're not hungry. Why don't you take some Tylenol and turn in for the night, alright Simon?" Dave said worriedly. Simon yawned and nodded, and headed upstairs to the bathroom without another word.

While Simon was in the bathroom, Alvin was almost done taking the monitor cable out as Theodore watched quietly behind him.

"Do you think it will work?" Theodore asked. Alvin gave Theodore the thumbs up.

"Do you think Simon will get mad at us?" Theodore asked again. Alvin this time popped up out from under the computer desk with the monitor cable in hand and gave Theodore a flat look.

"When is he not mad at us Theodore? We'll just have to take the fury, it's for the best," Alvin said. Theodore nodded in agreement.

Hearing the medicine cabinet shut, he tossed the cable at Theodore.

"Quick, what do we do with this?" Alvin asked impatiently. Theodore tossed the cable back at Alvin.

"I don't know; you're faster than me at this!" Theodore said hurriedly.

Alvin, with a quick stroke of genius, stashed the cable in between Simon's bed and box-spring. He snickered to himself knowing that he'll have a grand time trying to find it.

The two of them got onto their beds and pulled some stuff out. Theodore picked up his GameBoy Advance SP, while Alvin picked up his Nintendo DS.

Without too much time to spare, Simon trudged his way sleepily into the room. Clueless as to why Alvin and Theodore were in here so early, he decided to (reluctantly) converse with his brothers.

"What are you two doing up here so early?" Simon asked, groggily.

"Felt like hanging out up here tonight, no big deal," Alvin said, pretending to sound interested in the game.

"Oh, okay," Simon grumbled, heading over to the computer chair and sitting down.

"Hey, didn't Dave say to stay off the computer tonight and rest?" Theodore asked, looking over at the computer curiously. It never actually occurred to him to try to _spy_ on what Simon was researching, but it's a little too late for that now.

"Huh, oh? He did? Must have forgotten," Simon said begrudgingly, completely ignoring the forewarning and turned his tower back on. He turned the monitor on as well, and that's when Simon immediately began to wake up.

"W-what?!" Simon cried out in exasperation.

The call made Alvin almost throw his DS into the ceiling. "Huh? What?"

"The monitor isn't working! It says there's no connection!" Simon cried out frantically.

Theodore was completely unfazed by Simon's outburst. He was getting into the game he was playing already.

Alvin looked at his brother sarcastically. "I guess even the computer thinks you need to rest," Alvin said smugly.

"Alvin, this isn't funny!" Simon said in annoyance, readily going under the computer desk to see what the problem was. "If the computer is broken Dave is gonna kill me!"

"Just relax, Simon. You had a life before Theodore broke his leg you know," Alvin said even more smugly.

After a few seconds of tinkering, Simon got out from underneath the computer desk in a hurry with a beet red face. One could almost see the steam pouring out of Simon's ears.

Alvin and Theodore looked up before showing their complete and utter indifference by getting by returning their focus to their games.

"Okay, I'm only going to say this once. Alvin, hand it over. Right. Now," Simon said, outstretching his hand.

Alvin raised his eyebrows briefly before returning focus on the game.

Simon did not like this reaction at all, and immediately snatched the DS from Alvin's hands and turned the game off on him. "I said give. It. Back. Now." Still with no real reaction, Simon grabbed Alvin by the turtleneck to go nose to nose with him. "Give it back!"

Alvin looked right through Simon. "How about no."

Simon growled starkly at Alvin, while Theodore turned his game off.

"Why don't you go look for it?" Theodore suggested.

"You're in on this too, aren't you!?" Simon said accusingly, throwing Alvin back onto his bed roughly.

"So what if I am? Does this mean we finally exist?" Theodore said apathetically.

"How dare you!" Simon growled, locking eyes with Theodore with an almost visible electric current. "For your information, you two very well do exist, thank you very much."

"Oh really then?" Theodore said, getting up and walking right up to Simon without his crutches. "Then why is it that the only times you talk with us it to either check on me or blame Alvin for everything?"

"Because I care about you, that's why!" Simon said defensively. Theodore folded his arms and stared at the floor like he wanted it to light on fire.

"Because you care about me? Your version of caring about me is sitting in front of that computer all day and yelling at Alvin and Fritzie every time my eyes water!?" Theodore growled. Simon took a step back.

"What?! Theodore..."

"No, stop it!" Theodore said, taking another step forward pointing a finger at Simon. "All three of us think there's something seriously wrong with you! And until you turn back into my brother you can't have your stupid computer back. Or if you don't care about anything anymore or even yourself, find the damn monitor cable then on your own!"

Alvin just stared wide-eyed about what he just saw, and only stared. Maybe hiding the monitor cable wasn't the best idea after all.

Simon sighed and gave in. "Okay, I'll stay off the computer if it makes you guys feel any better."

Theodore hobbled back over to bed and made himself comfortable, then picked up his game again and began to play it. Simon in turn went over to his bed as well and just laid there, arms behind his head as he stared at the ceiling.

After the shock wore off, Alvin passed out. Eating so fast made him lose his spark a little early tonight and all the chaos drained his energy quite a bit as well.

Theodore was next to fall asleep. After gaming for an hour he began to feel drowsy as well, so he turned the game off and went to sleep without speaking another word.

Simon however, despite how tired he was, couldn't fall asleep.

'I can't believe how vicious Theodore was towards me today. It doesn't make any sense. All this time I was just trying to research ways on how to make him feel better. Yet if I tell him...I don't even know if he'll listen to me anymore.'

_"Maybe it would be wise to try a different approach...?"_

Tal's voice echoed through Simon's head.

'I still don't get what he meant by trying a different approach,' Simon thought to himself. 'I tried a different approach. If I'm researching about him I thought I'd try out some of the practices I learned for a change, but every time I check on him, he gets more and more mad... mad at me?'

He looked over at his sleeping brothers. Nothing on their expressions would have left any evidence about what happened today.

'Theodore must want me to figure it out on my own...and if I can't figure it out...I'm losing my touch.' He sighed. 'Maybe I do need to take a break from the computer after all.'

He rolled over to feel a weird bump in his mattress. Curious as to what would cause the discomfort, he lifted up his mattress to find the cable stashed in there. He glared at the cable, then at his sleeping brothers and sighed.

Carefully, he picked the cable up and turned the computer completely off to quickly re-hook it back up. When he was done, he pushed the power button on the monitor and sat down again to get ready to go back onto the computer.

As he went to turn the tower on though, he stopped himself before he could fully push it and sighed.

"I have to break this habit," he whispered to himself, turning the monitor back off and slowly crawled back into bed.

He began to think about what would happen next, and in due time, he lost all his thoughts and fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

**I don't know when I'll have the next chapter up. I'm not doing this for review hounding, believe me (although a few reviews would be lovely), but I'm taking it easy for the next few days. I'll have the next chapter up when I'm feeling more up to par.**


	9. Chapter 8: Bitter Morning w Bacon

**[Sighs] Alright. Feeling much better now. I found a lot of reviews waiting for me, many of them being make up reviews from Chipmunklover- which thanks a bunch Lizzie! I understand why it took so long. (And if you want to kill me now... [chuckles weakly.] well I don't know about that. XD)**

**Other than feeling better, I really don't have all that much to say. That's kind of good though, I'm feeling rather satisfied. Enjoy the next chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 8**  
Bitter Morning and a Side of Bacon

In my sleep, I began to smell this wonderful smell. It was almost heavenly, and I reached up to grab whatever it was. However, there was nothing within grasp.

Sure that I was close, I instinctively crawled out of bed and followed the scent closely, slowly following along behind the smell of delicious wonder that was doing its best to elude me.

I headed out the door; Tal was trying hard not to laugh as he lured me out of the room with a strip of bacon. Quietly, he slipped into the kitchen, as I followed closely behind. Eventually, after passing diagonally through the kitchen, he lured me into the open dining room and I sat down in the chair before I realized what I was doing.

What actually woke me up was the small clink the plate made on the kitchen table. I slowly came round, looking at the plate and picking up a piece of bacon and studying it quite carefully.

"Hmm...this dream food looks rather real...it's almost surreal."

"Morning Froo'" Tal commented as he was buttering a few pieces of toast.

My eyes opened a little further and looked right down at the kitchen table. Unsure of what to do, I just outright screamed.

"Wargh! What the hell?!" I cried out, lacing in panic. I heard an audible thud in the kitchen and turned around to see Tal laughing hysterically on the floor.

"Ahahah! You should see the look on your face! Ahahaha!" he yelled out between outbursts of laughter. I growled.

"That's not funny! I had no idea where I was for a moment there!" I called in aggravated defense, but he wasn't fazed.

"Oh just relax Fritz, you have to admit it was funny," he said, sitting up and rubbing the tears out of his eyes. I scoffed and rolled my eyes.

"Alright, alright. Yeah, it was kind of funny," I said unenthusiastically, putting my head in one of my paws and stirring the fork around my plate. My brother eventually got up off the kitchen floor and brought over his plate and the three pieces of toast.

"I see you're still in a sour mood," Tal remarked as he took his seat next to me.

"I'm not sour, I'm just surprised! What's next? 'Oh look at the shiny red light over there!!!'?"

Tal groaned. "No, I wasn't going to do that today. Keep up the attitude though and I just might," Tal said flatly. I sighed.

"Oh, okay," I said thankfully. Well, if he isn't going to bother me today that's a relief in itself.

"Look, I know you had a real rough day yesterday. It's not easy to make you seriously upset, so I'm not going to torture you today, okay?" he said, taking a bite out of his eggs. "I think I've had my fix today anyways."

The fact he was chuckling made me growl, but I flicked myself in the chin. "I know, lighten up. Thanks."

Tal smirked and the rest of breakfast went by uneventful. He told me about some of the things he was learning about in sound production and whatnot and asking me how I slept that night. Relatively dreamless last night, so it was much more refreshing.

After finishing breakfast, I went back into my room and got myself a set of clean clothes and take a shower, while Tal cleaned up the kitchen.

When I was done, he was waiting for me outside the bathroom.

"Anyways, I have work from ten to six tonight. Do you want to stay at home by yourself today or do you still want to go to Dave's?"

A curious look appeared on my face. To be honest, I wasn't exactly thrilled to go there today. But there's always that lingering little hope that pops into my head saying 'they might have changed overnight' that seems to con me into going over there almost every day.

"You don't have to if you don't want to. I'm not going to force you over there."

I sighed. I also have to remember that I might have talked Alvin into bonding with Theodore a little bit to make things a little better. Fresh with the knowledge with what was wrong with Simon as well; I guess it couldn't hurt too much to at least try today. "I'll go."

"Fritzie-"

"If it becomes too much for me I'll come home, okay? I want to see if Alvin actually talked to Teddy last night, and it's not like they live far away."

My brother sighed. "Alright, if you insist."

* * *

I tapped lightly on the front door, and put on my game face. I was expecting today to be a relatively stressful experience, so I wanted to make myself look tough, like 'don't mess with me today.'

The door opened slowly, and I was about to charge into the door but stopped cold in my tracks when I saw two legs in front of me. I looked up hesitantly.

Sheepish and unsure of what to say, I grinned with a guilty looked and chuckled. "Err, hi Dave."

Dave looked at me funny. "Hi Fritzie, you seem to be in a strange mood today. Something wrong?"

My eye twitched. Damn it, I've been seen through! Sighing, I sulked a little bit and finished walking in the door. "Are the boys awake yet?"

"No, they're still asleep. Want me to go wake them up?" Dave suggested, beginning to walk up the stairs. I waved my hands in front of me.

"No no no, it's okay Dave, thanks. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something before they wake up," I said, insisting at first before deflating like a balloon.

Dave nodded. "Oh, okay. Why don't you come into the studio with me?" he asked, picking up his mug of coffee and heading through the living room around the staircase to the back hallway where the studio was located. I followed behind him quietly.

"Now, what did you want to talk about?" Dave asked, sitting down in the leather armchair in his studio. I blinked, trying to figure out how to word what I wanted to say. To be completely honest, I didn't exactly want to talk to Dave about anything, but I guess it will give me some sort of closure.

"Uh, I don't really know how to explain it...I've been having a hard time talking about this to anybody except for my brother really."

"Well it doesn't hurt to at least try," Dave said with a shrug. I felt a slight knot in my throat, but I shook my head about it. It doesn't make it any easier just bottling it in.

"Well...uh, it's kind of sort of about the boys," I said, rubbing the back of my neck.

"About how much they've been fighting with each other you mean?"

I nodded, a little surprised about how fast he picked up on it. "Yeah, that," I said, looking away.

"Does this have anything to do with why you left so early yesterday? Usually you stick around until Tal get's home or dinner," Dave commented.

"Yeah...Dave, the boys constantly going at each other," I started, pausing for a moment before continuing, "it's really stressing me out. It's like every time I try to interfere and distract them or break them up, it just doesn't do anything. I mean, I know what's bothering all three of them, but they don't want me to reveal anything to anybody and even Tal is telling me to stay out of it."

I looked up at Dave, and he nodded. "I don't know what to do about it! I just want the three of them to go back to the way they were, the three friends I made a month ago. What should I do?"

Dave sighed. "I've been trying to do what I can myself to get the boys to stop. I've even tried to get Simon off of the computer, but lately every time I do it feels like I'm talking to a brick wall."

I shook my head a little bit. "Wait, you know what's wrong with all three of them as well?"

"I wouldn't be much of a father if I didn't know what was wrong with my boys. I have my own clever ways of observing their behavior and they do on occasion talk to me about what's bothering them. However, I can't seem to help ease their emotional troubles either. As they say, kids have a hard time listening to adults sometimes."

That makes sense I suppose. There's times where I have a very hard time listening to Tal as well, though he's not quite an adult himself. The words of wisdom didn't seem very comforting though.

"You have a better chance of helping them fix up their problems than I do. I can try, but you're their age. I noticed kids these days tend to listen to their friends much more closely than they do their parents."

"So does this mean that I should point blank tell Simon what's making Theodore so aggravated?" I asked.

"Well if Theodore doesn't want you to say anything, you might not make it any easier than if say Theodore was to confess it to Simon himself."

I groaned. Back to square one. "What do I do then? Is there any way how I could possibly just lure them-wait a second..."

Dave's brow furrowed, whilst I raised one of my own and looked up at the ceiling. "Actually, maybe I should try that! Hey Dave, do you think the boys could go for a walk after they eat breakfast?"

"Well I don't want anything to happen to Theodore...he's still injured after all..."

I snapped my finger in frustration. "Drat."

"...I suppose it wouldn't hurt though. Theodore has been pretty much housebound so perhaps a walk is a good idea. Give the boys some fresh air."

My face perked up. Maybe I could be on to a solution. "Thanks Dave!" I said in a hurry, running out of the studio.

"Hey, the boys are still asleep you know!" Dave called to me as I made my way halfway through the living room. I pinched myself for acting impulsively and headed back to the studio.

"Ehehe, right," I said with a thumbs up, "I knew that."

Dave got out of his chair and headed out in front of me towards the stairs up to the boys' room, while I waited downstairs. After a few moments, Dave came back downstairs and gave me a nod. I waited in a scared anticipation waiting to see what face emerged from the room first, and got the game face on that I had when I first came over.

To my surprise, Simon was the first one out of the room. Sure, he was a little groggy, but he felt a little different. I remember he was one of the first ones down when I lived with them for a few weeks, but since the computer addiction started, he's been the last one out of the room lately.

"Good morning, Fritzie," he said as he walked by. I blinked. He hadn't done that in about two weeks. That alone ventured a sarcastic comment.

"Wait a second...am I surrounded by moon people that wear shoes on their head? Are you actually the first one down?" I asked in half sarcasm and half confusion.

Simon's face flattened. "And what is that supposed to mean...?" he grumbled. I sighed and scratched the back of my head.

"It means that I'm surprised you came out of the room before your brothers and I was trying to make you laugh. Lighten up please?" I asked, putting my 'thumb' and 'index finger' close together. Simon just heaved a sigh and continued walking into the kitchen.

Next out was Alvin, which again surprised me. Since Simon dropped out of being the first regular appearance, Theodore took his place because Theodore would never deny breakfast. At least...never deny breakfast before Alvin, even with a broken leg.

"Maybe I am surrounded by moon people that wear shoes on their head..." I muttered to myself, before looking up to greet Alvin as he passed by to the kitchen. "Good morning Alvin."

"Hiya," he said relatively unenthusiastically. Uh-oh, either he's extremely tired or something must have happened last night. I'd have to ask about that later.

Simon and Alvin were already done pouring their bowls of cereal when Theodore finally came out of the room. He looked a bit forlorn today, which led me to suspect that something did in fact happen last night. I guess Alvin talked to him last night after all.

"Hi Fritzie," Theodore said quietly. He had bags under his eyes and he sounded a little upset. I frowned.

"Good morning buddy," I said, rubbing his hair in an attempt to make him feel better. He grinned and chuckled, but he still looked rather upset, which made me feel disappointed. I followed behind Theodore into the kitchen and leant up against the kitchen wall as he went over to the table and poured himself a bowl of cereal. The three of them hadn't said a single word to each other.

I cleared my throat awkwardly. "I take it the three of you aren't feeling well today?"

"No, I'm okay," Alvin said reluctantly.

"I'm fine," Simon said plainly.

"Yeah, I'm alright," Theodore said with a mouthful of cereal.

"You guys sure? I'll leave if you guys want me to," I suggested. If I had a chance at luring the boys into a walk, I surely wouldn't if they were looking this bad.

"Nah, it's alright," Alvin and Simon said in unison. Theodore shook his head but didn't say anything. I almost rolled my eyes.

"O...kay," I said awkwardly. "Uh, when you guys are done I'll be in the living room, okay?"

"Mmhmm," a monotone noise came from the kitchen, probably from all three of them. I sighed and walked into the living room and sat down.

After a few minutes, Simon left the kitchen and went back upstairs, ultimately causing me to sigh. He might have been the first one downstairs for a change, and everyone was rather tired and sour, but other than that it looked like nothing changed. Oh joy. Maybe I should just stop jumping to conclusions.

Next out was Theodore, who headed back upstairs as well. No second bowl today I see.

Finally, last out was Alvin, who walked straight over to me.

"What's up?" I asked as Alvin sat down on the couch next to me and lay down on it, putting his arms behind his head and letting his cap hang loosely on the top of his head.

"Oh, nothing," Alvin said drearily. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, right. And I'm Carmen Electra. Did you talk to Theodore at all last night like I suggested?"

"Yeah, I did," he said, not changing his tone.

"Not buying-"

"I did!" Alvin said defensively, sitting up sideways on the couch and throwing his arms up at me. I scooted about six inches back sheepishly and moved my head to the side, then watched as Alvin folded his arms and lay back down on the couch.

"Well what happened?" I asked in concern. "I can practically see the rain clouds hovering above your heads. All three of you."

"Simon's probably going to go back in front of that stupid computer again and he's going to keep ignoring Theodore and bothering me," Alvin grumbled. "It's bad enough he's pissed at me,"

"What makes you say that?" I asked before I began to feel a nagging thought tug at the back of my mind. I didn't like where this was going. "What did you two do last night...?"

"Well you see, Theodore told me that Simon's bothering him because all he does is sit in front of the computer," Alvin explained.

"Go on..." I said flatly. My facial expression read 'just spit it out already!'

"So me and Theodore stole Simon's monitor cable to keep him off of it."

I smacked my forehead hard enough for me to question whether or not my ears were bleeding. "Alvin!" I admonished.

"What?!"

"That's not what you should have done! You should have gotten Simon to talk to Theodore about it, not steal his monitor cable!"

"And what, you really think that would have worked?" Alvin asked sarcastically. I looked at Alvin angrily.

_"Yes..."_ I said through clenched teeth. "That just makes Simon even more aggravated with _you_ so that he bothers you more, not solve the problem."

"Whatever. I talked to Theodore like you asked me to do. Don't get mad at me, 'k?" Alvin said plainly. I sighed in exasperation before shaking my head.

"Alright Alvin, at least you talked to him. That's better than nothing," I stated, trying not to be sarcastic. Theodore crutched back down the stairs again, with his hair wet and in his day clothes. He looked a little better, but I could still feel the rain cloud.

"So, did you tell him how you felt about being on the computer?" I called to Theodore as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

Theodore froze up on me. I sighed and shook my head, holding the top of my snout with both my paws.

"I take it that means 'no,' right?" I asked. Theodore nodded, and I sighed in exasperation. I got up off the couch and began to rub my temples.

"You know what? I'm going to go out for a walk. I need to clear up my frustration, I'll be right back," I said impatiently, heading over towards the door.

"Wait, can I come with you?" Theodore asked. I stopped halfway out the door. I wasn't intending on having them come for a walk this soon, but I inadvertantly laid the bait, and they're taking it.

"I'm in the mood for getting something from the store. Can I come too?" Alvin asked with an innocent look on his face. I could almost see the halo above his head.

"Do you think Dave would let you all the way to the store?" I asked. Alvin put his hand to his chin before he ran off to the studio to go pester Dave, while Theodore and I waited at the door.

In the meanwhile, Simon emerged from the room and looked down the stairs. He thought to himself for a minute, before coming down the stairs.

"Hey, where are you guys going?" Simon asked. Theodore narrowed his eyes, but I nudged him to make him stop.

"Alvin's asking to see if we can go up to the store, why?"

Simon looked into the living room before looking back up at me. "Uh, mind if I come along as well? I need to get out of the house anyway..."

Theodore's face relaxed, and I grinned. "Sure, I think all of us have to relieve a little bit of stress," I said with a nod.

Alvin came back into the living room and stopped which led to a glaring moment between Alvin and Simon before Dave came out of the room, in which both of them tried to cover it up innocently.

Dave, who seemed to ignore the small stand-off, looked over at Theodore instead. "Theodore, you don't mind walking all the way out to the store?"

"Can I go? Please?" Theodore asked almost excitedly, eager to get out of the house for a change.

"Well alright, if you insist. Simon, I want you to make sure that Theodore is alright, okay?" Dave instructed. Simon nodded.

"No problem, Dave," Simon stated affirmatively. Alvin rolled his eyes, and I made a motion that meant 'cut it out.'

"Okay boys, Fritzie, be careful," Dave added as Alvin went to join us.

"We will," the four of us chorused as we began to head out the door.

* * *

**Will Fritzie be able to work out the kinks between the brothers during the walk? Or will everything just go nuts? Only time will tell, until then, I look forward to any speculations. [Rubs hands together with a smirk.]**


	10. Chapter 9: Impending Meltdown

**Hey guys. Two brief things that I want to cover before I let you go on to read the chapter. First thing is, I'm sorry, I might have to update the next two chapters just a _little _slower than I want to. It's nothing personal at all guys, trust me. I just don't have my third batch of chapters back from being beta read yet, so after Chapter 11 I don't have anything to upload until I get them back. So my apologies, it's not my doing this time! D: I'll hopefully have the next batch of chapters back by the end of this week (today's Sunday.) My beta reader is out of town for the week for a cosplaying event.**

**Second thing that I have to bring up is that there's a risk that I might have to turn annonymous reviews off. I absolutely would hate to have to do it because then I'd lose valuable feedback (although if I remember correctly you do have a FFN account Northgalus2002) but I got a disturbing review from someone who attacked me personally about a completely unrelated issue. It's not fair for those who are reading the story to read it and it's not fair on me because it makes me look like an ass even if my actions were for a very good reason. (In fact, the issue had nothing to do with me but they kept attacking me about it so I put them on my ignore list.) **

**I'm working on trying to resolve the issue, but if I get another one of them from that person I might have to turn annonymous reviews off, because they'll keep posting about it. And if I do, I promise I'll give you guys fair warning. As for right now though, annonymous reviews are still on so I'm still looking forward to your wonderful reviews people. :)**

**Before you read, d****isclaimer: For those blindsided by the use of language, my apologies in advance. Remember what my character said in the third chapter. XD**

**Anyways, enjoy this chapter. Muahahaha!  
**-Narf

* * *

**Chapter 9  
**Impending Meltdown

Right away the walk got off to a rough start. Simon and Theodore went out the door first, while Alvin was grumbling to himself. When I walked out the door after the two, Alvin must have gotten impatient or something because when he cut out the door behind me. Before I fully got out mind you, he ran out the door, missed the step and face planted into the grass.

Simon and Theodore both erupted into laughter, and even I couldn't help but laugh a little bit when he did that. I mean after all, that's what you get for being impatient. Still, I went over and helped Alvin up.

A little annoyed, Alvin clenched his fists and glared to shut both of them up before he brushed the dirt and grass blades off of his sweater and continuing down the sidewalk to the street. Theodore and I let it go, but Simon seemed to have other plans.

"Hey Alvin," Simon asked smugly, "you ever think of becoming a clown when you grow up? Because you have the comic timing down perfectly."

"That was a little uncalled for," I muttered to myself. Alvin didn't like the remark at all.

"Can it before I sock you one!" Alvin growled, raising both of his fists. He got ready to charge forward, but I came in and caught Alvin in an arm bar before he could.

"Chill out Alvin! Fighting with him isn't going to do anything but make it worse! I'm not the only one here with an impulse problem," I said, struggling to keep Alvin in place so he wouldn't charge at Simon.

"I can hit just as hard as you can, Alvin," Simon said with the same smugly satisfied grin on his face, while Theodore made himself comfortable on his crutches and began rubbing his temples.

"Stop it!" I scolded Simon.

Simon began laughing again, while Alvin started kicking violently at me yelling out "Let me at him!"

"Alvin calm down! Stop it, don't let him aggravate you!" I warned him, this time fully tackling him. While I was trying to confine him to the grass, I looked over my shoulder to yell at Simon. "And you stop it with the comments. You're smarter than that, why would you add gasoline to a fire? I mean, sure, it may be a liquid but it doesn't put the fire out."

"And you wonder why I want to hurt you!" Alvin said with some more struggling.

"Let it go!" I all but screamed into Alvin's ear. "Both of you stop it right now! I was ready to just go out for a walk by myself because of these constant immature and stupid fights but I decided to let all three of you come along so just _stop_ it!" Alvin stopped struggling out from underneath me and I got up to point right at Simon.

"Besides, I don't think Theodore needs to put up with this crap either so neither of us needs to deal with any more, got it?" I said, poking Simon in the chest when I said 'got it.'

Theodore looked at me and shook his head. I couldn't tell if he shook his head out of dismay or like he was saying 'leave me out of this,' but either statement would have made sense by this point.

Simon sulked a little bit. I'd like to assume it would be out of guilt but that would probably be presumptuous. For all I know, he might be sulking because he missed the opportunity to fight with Alvin. At this point, anything could happen because the chemistry for this walk was already starting to get explosive.

"Fine, I get the message. Truce Alvin?" Simon asked, sticking his hand out.

Alvin picked himself off the ground and reluctantly brushed the grass off of him again, then rolled his eyes and stuck his hand out for a handshake, muttering 'truce' almost incomprehensibly. I was at the ready in case (and I know this is going to sound a little strange) Simon was going to pull some sort of trick. He didn't though, thankfully.

I groaned in exasperation. "Alright, now since that skirmish has been finally settled, let's try this walk again and get to the store in one piece? Everybody's already under enough stress right now I don't need to be peeling limbs off the concrete halfway down the street or hitting you guys."

"Got it," Alvin and Simon said monotonously. I reassuringly rubbed Theodore's head.

"Sorry, not mad at you, think you know that," I said wearily. Theodore sighed in exasperation as well and nodded.

Simon cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Uh if you want to go on ahead, I'll walk with Theodore." In retrospect, this may have been the better idea, but I wasn't about ready to have that. Not with an instigating Simon.

"Uh, no? I'm keeping an eye on you two idiots," I said in exasperation, pointing for both Alvin and Simon to go in front of me while the two of them traded looks with each other uncomfortably. Then after a moment's pause, they headed out in front of me as we finally left the property.

Alvin sighed in aggravation. "Great, you got her pissed," Alvin muttered quietly.

Simon was about to yell back, but he bit his lip and kept walking.

"Why did you have to act like a prick about it?" Alvin grumbled quietly.

Simon's raised an eyebrow. "It's _fun_ I tell you. Give you a taste of your own medicine," Simon said softly.

"You know I can hear you, right?" I said as calmly as I could. I could sense Theodore beginning to feel apathetic right next to me and I shook him lightly and made a goofy face. 'I'm starting to calm down a little, relax,' I whispered into his ear. This made Theodore make a very meek grin before going flat again.

Alvin and Simon then began to trade looks with each other, probably to argue in some kind of manner that I wouldn't understand. I could read some of them, but I didn't concentrate on them enough to really understand what they were trying to say to each other.

"Hey Fritz?" Theodore asked quietly, almost trying not to be heard by his brothers. I focused my attention on Theodore instead of trying to figure out why Simon and Alvin were glaring menacingly at each other. I raised an eyebrow motioning I'm listening. "Did you ever wonder what it's like having a brother or a sister?"

The question threw me through a loop. Aside from Tal and mom, I really didn't have much a family, so I didn't know how to take the question. I think what threw me the most about the question though was the timing. Unsure with what to say, I stuck with the route I knew best. "I have Tal, does that count?"

"No, I mean somebody your age," he added. Simon and Alvin must have heard the question, because both of them looked at Theodore with concerned looks.

My jaw dropped. "Uh..." I said hesitantly. I don't know how to answer that question! I have asked this to myself before, but at this point, I wouldn't want to! If having a sibling was anything like what's in front of me, hell no! Tal's enough, thank you very much. "...that's the last thing on my mind right now, Theodore." Theodore wasn't impressed with the comment, but he nodded signaling he understood what I was trying to say.

"I don't blame you," Theodore commented. I think Simon sobered up a little bit at that, because he gave Theodore a guilty look before pulling Alvin ahead with him like he wanted to conference.

"Uh, maybe we should limit our fights," Simon commented to Alvin, looking out towards the street and stopping before looking at Alvin with almost the same guilty look. "I didn't realize how much they were bothering Theodore and Fritzie."

Alvin was about ready to tap Simon on the side of the head and say 'duh,' but he realized it was a bad idea before the action began and instead stopped and folded his arms up. "No, you think? Do you think I _want_ this?"

Simon's face cringed as he held back a sarcastic comment that probably would have started the next fight. Loosening his face up and biting his lip, he nodded.

"Besides, it's not just the fights that you've been starting with me that have been driving them-"

"Oh, so it's me that's been starting all the fights?" Simon retorted.

I gritted my teeth and slouched, growling as a warning to stop it.

"Would you let me finish?" Alvin snapped back at Simon, shocking his brother into silence. "Thank you," Alvin said sarcastically, licking the roof of my mouth like that was bad taste, "as I was saying it's not just the fights that are making them pissed, it's the fact that you spend absolutely no time with Theodore and instead just sit in front of that stupid computer like the world is going to blow up tomorrow."

Simon looked to me like he was trying to cue me to stop this fight, but I instead loosened up nodded. "Alvin speaks the truth."

Simon looked to Alvin like he was offended, like all three of us knew what he was researching in the first place. I might know, but I had to remain incognito, so I pretended I had no idea what he was talking about. "I'll have you know that what I've been researching has been totally worthwhile, _thank you very much,_" Simon remarked informatively.

This is where I began to jump up and down in my mind yelling out 'Theodore now's your chance!!'

"Then what?!" Alvin yelled out impulsively.

I smacked my forehead. "Alvin, no!" I muttered.

"It's none of your business!" Simon said accusingly, pointing right at Alvin's chest.

"Argh, that's it!" a voice yelled out from behind me before I could open my mouth. My jaw clamped shut with an audible snap, then I turned around behind me to see Theodore absolutely red in the face- something I did _not_ want to happen. He stood on his feet and had both his crutches in his left hand.

Alvin and Simon both quickly dropped whatever they were arguing about and suddenly looked scared to death, and I felt my emotions begin to drain from me. "Theodore?" Alvin asked stupidly. Theodore took three steps forward, breathing heavily like an enraged bull as he did so.

"I've had enough of all of this crap!" Theodore yelled out, pointing at Simon. "I've had enough of you guys fighting, and I've had enough of you being a stuck up brat about that goddamn computer!"

Alvin had the biggest look of disbelief on his face. "Theodore knows how to swear?" He didn't quite catch it when Theodore said 'damn' the night before.

"You know what, it's been driving me nuts for the last three weeks wondering what you've been doing that's so frickin' important about whatever stupid research you're doing so that you only 'check on me' if you have the time or 'say hi to me' whenever you go get a snack or something," Theodore yelled, sounding sarcastic when he said 'check on me' and 'say hi to me' in the process. "Hello!? Do I exist outside of that?! How hard is it to let me say what's wrong my own way without jumping to conclusions?"

Simon winced. "But you know what?!" Theodore continued, "I don't care anymore! I have Fritzie and Alvin to listen to me and you can just...argh!"

With that, Theodore threw his crutches in the bushes next to him and began to storm off back home.

"Alvin you idiot! You should have let _him_ ask that question!" I yelled at Alvin before groaning and picking up Theodore's crutches. "I'm going to go make sure that he doesn't destroy anything on the way home, and you two can take you're god damn walk _far_ away from me. Maybe now you two can have that fist fight that you two wanted _so_ badly five minutes ago."

Simon's face tightened. "I'm sorry!" he called out, but Theodore didn't hear and I ignored. I was muttering to myself in aggravation trying to keep my distance from Theodore at least for the second. He turned to Alvin for some sort of consolation, but Alvin already had his back to him as he sat down on the curb and threw his head in his lap.

"Alvin, I'm sorry, I don't-"

"Just go away!" Alvin choked out. The pressure was enough to make him reach his breaking point, and he sat down on the curb unwilling to move from that spot.

Simon sighed and moved a few feet further down the street before sitting on the curb and throwing his head in his lap himself. It was then where he realized how he was acting around his brothers finally sank in and it made a pit form in his stomach. He didn't understand why it was so hard for Theodore to ask the question about what he was researching in the first place but he began to get that feeling that he shouldn't have been so secretive either. The next time that Theodore came around he was going to tell him the truth about it.

Very uncomfortable, he picked his legs up and hugged his knees to his chest, resting his chin on top of his knees. After clearing the knot in his throat, he managed to mumble "Alvin, go after Fritzie and Theodore."

Alvin looked up, his eyes badly glazed over and the fur on top of his nose a little wet. Simon was trying real hard not to look over at Alvin as his eyes began to glaze over as well.

Unfortunately, that didn't quite work and the both of them traded upset looks with each other. "They're more mad at me than they are with you, go. Theodore's probably going to tell Dave about what happened and I bet won't get in trouble for it. Trust me."

Alvin didn't budge. He put his head back in his lap and didn't say a word.

Simon sighed and stopped trying to resist the urge to start silently crying to himself. If he only didn't stay on the computer so much, if he only knew what was going on around him and wasn't mad at anything and everything that was different. A feeling also began to sink in that he'd picked up Alvin's bad habits. The selfishness, the addiction to electronics...the uncanny knack of being oblivious that everything that went on in his surroundings except for himself. After several criticisms and even the occasional wonderment of sharing the same gene pool, he found himself in the exact place he criticized, while Alvin acted exactly the way _he_ would in that situation- at everyone's expense.

He opened his mouth to speak, to try to apologize, but the knot in his throat was too big, so he sat on the curb for a little while to try to clear up his emotions in order to be able to speak again.

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**Argh! I had to stop here didn't I?! Sorry, this whole thing would have been too long and probably too much to handle in just one chapter, so I guess you'll have to see how things pan out in the next chapter in a few days! Reviews!**

**[Slaps forehead.] OH! And before I forget again. I made one slight change to the flashback all the way in Chapter 2, the chapter that introduces who Cody is. Don't worry, it's not a major change, and I'm not expecting a review for it. It makes things make a little more sense for earlier and future chapters if you do. I've had it changed for about two weeks now I just kept forgetting to say so. Sorry about that!**


	11. Chapter 10: Making Up

**Alright, before I get to the core of the author's note, just letting you guys know about the problem I touched on the last Chapter- I don't think I will need to turn annonymous reviews off. I settled the issue with the person and I don't think I will have any more problems. Don't think anybody noticed as nobody remarked on it but irregardless I figure I'd throw that out there anyways.**

**I see some of you were expecting what happened in the last chapter to happen, some of you didn't. And that's cool, glad to hear what you guys thought, makes me very happy. I'm going to have to apologize again, I still haven't gotten my next batch of chapters back from my beta reader although she is back and working on it. So I only have one chapter left after this one before I run out and there will be a slight wait. I would have had this chapter out two days ago if I had them, so don't think that I'm not eager to upload more. I'm kind of limited at the moment.**

**Anyways, there is a song in this chapter! Just like in past chapters with songs in them, the link to the playlist with the songs in it is on my profile, so be sure to check it out. This would be the third song in the story. And like usual, if you're a slow reader, you may want to read it first before listening and reading, though the song itself isn't exactly necessary to the scene. It's just for the ambient feel.**

**I know a few of you were _really _hoping for this chapter to come along if you understand what I mean, so enjoy! :)  
**-Narf

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**Chapter 10  
**Making Up

After a moment of following at a safe distance behind Theodore, I began to follow behind a bit closer, brandishing the surprisingly undamaged crutches in my left hand. This was around the same time as Simon sat down on the curb to ponder to himself.

Theodore looked over at me and glared, almost as if I were Simon (with the way he's been acting at least) or something. I didn't like the look, but I didn't want to just _leave_ either. If he's going to go home, I have an obligation to at least follow him, if only for the sake that I'm carrying his crutches. He looked ahead again, trying to ignore that I was there for a few steps before looking at me and glaring at me again.

"Why are you following me!?" Theodore yelled at me.

"Uh...these...?" Trying real hard not to take offense to the comment, I held his crutches up to show him why. "I think Dave would throw a fit he found out you left these behind."

Theodore vigorously snatched the crutches out of my hands and continued to grumpily sulk home, holding onto them in his hand. "_Thanks_."

He then glared at me again like I was doing something wrong. "So you're still following me?"

That time it hurt, but I wasn't about to get pissed off over that comment either. I had to be real careful. "I'm just trying to make sure that you get home safe, that's all. Please don't yell at me...?"

"And why shouldn't I?!" Theodore yelled out. I was beginning to lose my patience with him fast.

"Theodore, don't yell at me," I said through clenched teeth. "Get a grip of yourself."

"Why should I? You're not my mom," Theodore griped loudly as he began to walk home at a faster pace. After hearing that, I just lost it. I ran up behind him and smacked him hard on the back of his head, enough to cause him to lurch forward.

"That was uncalled for!" I complained as my eyes began to well up.

Theodore growled at me as he rubbed the back of his head, then his eye twitched and he stopped. I think it suddenly occurred to him exactly what he just did, but I couldn't see it because by then I already had my hands in my face and had started crying. This walk turned into exactly what I was trying to prevent the whole time, and I was all but ready to go back home.

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**KEY SONG: THE EXIES - UGLY**

After a few moments, Simon finally was able to least attempt to make amends with the one who was still within earshot: Alvin.

"Alvin?" Simon asked, his voice faltering from being upset. "I'm sorry about the last few weeks."

Alvin looked up to see Simon as visibly upset as he was. Having enough of feeling apathetic about it and ready for a change, he listened up.

_Are you ugly? __A liar like me?  
__A user, a lost soul... s__omeone you don't know  
__Money's no cure, a__ sickness so pure  
__Are you like me? __Are you ugly?_

Simon sighed and kicked a stone off the curb. "I don't know what's got in to me, I have no right to criticize you or anybody else for being ticked off at me."

Alvin scooted down the curb a little bit to listen a little better, he could barely hear him.

"Seeing you this upset with me makes me feel that much worse about it. I had no idea that it would affect you guys this much, I didn't think what I was doing was causing so much damage."

_We are dirt, w__e are alone  
__You know we're far from sober  
__We are fake, w__e are afraid  
__You know it's far from over  
__We are dirt, w__e are alone  
__You know we're far from sober  
__Look closer, are you like me?  
__Are you ugly?_

Simon got up and wiped his eyes on his sweater sleeve, and Alvin slowly followed suit with his hands.

"I started to realize what was going on when you stole my monitor cable last night. That's why I came along for this walk but I forgot my manners when I left the house," Simon continued.

Alvin brushed the dirt off his hands on his sweater and nodded.

"Anyway, are you willing to give me another chance? I want to go back to that day when Fritzie first came along, when we worked as an unstoppable team. Deal?" Simon asked, sticking his hand out firmly.

Alvin looked up at Simon, then solidly took his hand and forced a grin. "Deal."

_Turn a blind eye, w__hy do I deny?  
__Medicate me, s__o I die happy  
__A strain of cancer, c__hokes the answers  
__Are you like me? __A liar like me?_

Theodore looked at me with a forlorn face before he finally started crying as well. Upset, he put his crutches down on the floor quietly and hugged me from behind.

"I'm really sorry Fritzie! I didn't mean what I said, really!" Theodore whispered in between sobs. I was unable to speak at the moment, so I just let him carry out with whatever he was doing. I'll say that it at least felt nice that someone was hugging me, but I wasn't ready to trust him just yet.

"Please say something? I feel really bad, honestly!" Theodore cried out. I sighed and tried clearing my throat.

"Theodore, it's really hard to talk right now," I said in a raspy voice.

_We are dirt, w__e are alone  
__You know we're far from sober  
__We are fake, w__e are afraid  
__You know it's far from over  
__We are dirt, w__e are alone  
__You know we're far from sober  
__Look closer, are you like me?  
__Are you ugly?_

Theodore stopped hugging me and got up, then picked up his crutches and started to walk away.

I got up quickly, trying to clear the tears from my snout. "Wait, Theodore, don't leave!" I cried out.

Theodore turned around, looking at me with eyes that made my heart melt. Meh, I can't stay mad at him. I made a motion for him to come here. He hesitated for a second before he approached me skittishly.

_You don't care  
__I don't care  
__I'm bitter  
__You're angry  
__You don't care  
__I don't care  
__You love you  
__Just like me_

"Come on, I'm not going to hit you again, you can come here," I said reassuringly, but still upset.

Theodore hung his head in shame as I hugged him back, letting him know I was going to let it go.

"Look, I know you have a lot of baggage to let go, I do too. Let's put this behind us, alright?"

_I blame you  
__You blame me  
__I'm bitter  
__You're angry  
__You don't care  
__I don't care  
__You like you  
__Like me_

Theodore nodded in my arms. I took a step back and lifted his chin up.

"As much as I want to just run off home right now myself, let's just try this walk one more time, alright?" I said, remembering how Alvin and Simon were as miserable as us. They were in the process of getting up off the curb, so they were doing something at least.

Theodore could barely see what I was looking at, but he nodded naively as well and followed behind me.

_We are dirt, __we are alone  
__You know we're far from sober  
__We are fake, w__e are afraid  
__You know it's far from over  
__We are dirt, __we are alone  
__You know we're far from sober  
__Look closer, are you like me?  
__Are you ugly?_

Theodore and I began to slowly walk down the street, my shirt soaked from both of us crying.

Simon and Alvin noticed us coming back and walked towards us as well. It made me feel a little better that both of them were quite sober as well as the fact that they weren't about ready to kill each other.

When the group of us finally met up at the midpoint, all of us stood awkwardly in one spot waiting for someone else to speak before Simon broke the silence.

_Are you ugly?  
__Are you ugly? _

"So..." Simon began hesitantly with a sniffle, "...you guys ready to finally settle this problem for once and for all?"

"Yeah," I said quietly. "I don't think any of us can handle it anymore."

* * *

The four of us began walking in the direction of the store again, Theodore back on his crutches. The whole conflict unraveled less than a block away from home; I wouldn't be surprised if some of the neighbors were watching or something.

"Anyway, Theodore, I think I need to come clean about something," Simon said awkwardly. Theodore stopped walking and gave Simon a confused look.

"Yeah?" Theodore asked quietly. Simon sighed.

"I probably should have told you what I was researching in the first place; you probably wouldn't have hated me so much for ignoring you."

Theodore looked at the ground. I was so ready to just jump in and reveal it, but then that would ruin the whole thing. Theodore looked back up at Simon, who sighed again.

"I was researching bone fractures. I just got a little carried away with it, that's all."

Theodore looked at Simon a little confused. "Bone fractures?"

"In other words, he was researching about you man," I cut in, unable to keep my mouth shut any longer. "He was researching about broken bones, and how to make you feel better."

Simon looked at me flatly. "Did you know about this the whole time?"

Alvin and Theodore both looked at me, and I just looked at my feet. "Tal told me yesterday..."

"Why didn't you say something?" Alvin admonished. I looked up at Alvin and shook my head.

"Tal didn't want me to say anything to you guys, he wanted you guys to figure that out on your own." Now I sighed and looked at the floor again. "Besides, Theodore wanted to do this on his own, so I wasn't about to but in. Tal and I both thought it would have been better if we just let him figure that out on his own, even if it meant you guys finally snapped."

The three of them traded shocked looks with each other then nodded; even Alvin.

"So that's why Tal suggested to me I try a different approach," Simon commented.

"He did?" I asked as all four of us resumed walking again.

"Yeah, he did. At first I didn't understand what he meant by that. But in retrospect...I think I know now," Simon said guiltily.

"Tal's a computer junkie himself, I think he knows why you were acting the way you were than anybody else," I commented.

Simon dropped back from being in front of all of us to walk alongside Theodore. "I'm really sorry Theodore. I wish you would have just said something to me, I didn't know what was bothering you; you never said anything about it so I just assumed it was Alvin."

"Ahem," Alvin muttered, clearing his throat. Simon took the hint and nodded.

"Of course, I know now it's not him that was the cause of it. I'll spend more time with you from now on, I promise."

Theodore dropped the crutches and just flat out hugged Simon on the spot. That's better. Things appear to be finally coming to some sort of closure.

"Thank you Simon," Theodore cried out. Simon, feeling welcome to the embrace hugged him back with almost the same ferocity knowing Theodore was willing to help set things right.

After a few moments, Simon stepped back and finally approached me. "And I believe I owe you an apology as well-"

"All three of us do..." Alvin cut in, rubbing the back of his head and looking away. Simon looked back at Alvin before focusing on me again.

"I don't think any of us except for maybe Theodore knew how much stress we were putting on you and we thank you for sticking with us so long to try to keep us in line."

If it were possible, I would be blushing four different shades of red. Who knows, maybe I was underneath the shaggy fur. But it felt a little better that maybe it wasn't all for naught. Didn't get rid of my headache by any means but it made me feel just a little more satisfied.

"Uh, thanks I guess," I said, scratching one of my ears.

"Are you still mad at us?" Theodore asked. I was a little hesitant.

"No, I'm not mad per say. I just have my doubts... especially after all the things that have happened in the last three days," I said unsurely.

The three brothers looked at each other and nodded. "We don't blame you, but we're ready to try to prove it to you. You in?" Simon replied, sticking his hand out for a firm shake.

I smirked and looked at Theodore and Alvin, who looked determined to get this right, before giving Simon a firm handshake. "I'm in."

* * *

**Whew. Alright, so... do you think the boys will be able to hold true to their word? How will things go later that night? And where's Cody been the last few chapters anyways? All will be revealed soon. Until then, it's always fun to read your speculations. ;) Review!**


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